Tag: B12

Folic acid for stroke – and to remember

Claus Hancke

June 12, 2007

You must remember your folic acid, otherwise you forget it.
This sounds like nonsense, but its not.

Folic acid helps keep the brain in good shape, and if you don’t get enough you might have problems thinking clearly and remembering when you get older.

Folic acid is the vitamin that fertile women should take (0.4 mg per day) unless they are 100% sure that they will not become pregnant. Far from all do this, even though folic acid prevents children from being a lifelong invalids due to spinal chord herniation (spina bifida) and reduces the risk of cleft lip and palate! That it is preventative is so called new knowledge (1) which is to say that it was pointed out, but ignored, over twenty years ago.

But folic acid also helps the memory and thought ability. Who do we know this? The English neurologist Edward Reynolds demonstrated it 40 years ago in hi article in The Lancet. He showed that 26 epilepsy patients who suffered folic acid deficiency due to their medicine improved when they received folic acid (2). This has since been forgotten.

Now there are new studies. One had negative results. Its authors concluded that folic acid has no effect on cognitive function, which did not improve for study participants who received 0.4 mg folic acid daily (without vitamin B12, in which they were mildly deficient) (3).

There is a simple explanation for this: the only lasted 24 weeks. This is not long enough, which will be explained below, but first a couple of other results.

An issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition from last February included an article which outlined that the more pronounced folic acid deficiency in elderly people, the poorer (statistically) their cognitive function. The likelihood of decreasing cognitive function was more than doubled in those with a deficiency of folic acid (4). There are many people with folic acid deficiency because folic acid is primarily found in liver and leafy vegetables, which many people push to the side if their plates.

20% fewer strokes
Lack of folic acid is shown roughly by finding increased blood levels of the substance, homocysteine. It is an amino acid which is poisonous to the blood vessels (among other things) and which is believed to lead to atherosclerosis, but that the body nonetheless creates. Normally it is neutralised in part by folic acid. If you lack folic acid, you homocysteine levels rise.

A link between lowered cognitive function and homocysteine has been shown in Sweden (5). There it was shown that elderly people with documented memory problems often had high levels of homocysteine. This was only true with the poor memory was found along with atherosclerosis, which homocysteine is believed to promote!

In addition, Dutch researchers recently showed in a randomised trail that a supplement of folic acid (o.8 mg daily) for 50 – 70 year olds not only reduced their levels of homocysteine, but also statistically improved the “brain functions which have a tendency to decline with age.” Memory, reaction time, and the ability to speak quickly and fluently were bettered. The study lasted for three years, which is a necessary time period (6).

If that is not enough, a comprehensive study of eight randomised studies has recently shown that the risk of stroke resulting from atherosclerosis generally is reduced by 20% when taking folic acid supplements. The studies which lasted longer than three years showed the best results. Participants who had already had a stroke were less protected and if those who were lucky enough to live in a country where food is enriched with folic acid (USA, Canada) showed fewer effects.

We should remember our folic acid. The daily dosage should be between 0.4 and 0.8 mg daily.

By: Vitality Council

 

References:
1. Bille C et al. Folic acid and birth malformations. BMJ 2007;334:433-34.
2. Reynolds E. Folate and aging. Lancet 2007;;369:1601.
3. Eussen SJ et al. Effect of oral vitamin B12 with or without folic acid on cognitive function in older people with mild vitamin B-12 deficiency: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84(2):361-70.
4. Haan M et al. Homocysteine, B-vitamins, and the incidence of dementia and cognitive impairment: Results from the Sacramento area latino study on aging. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:511-7.
5. Nilsson K et al. Plasma homocysteine is elevated in elderly patients with memory complaints and vascular disease. Dement Geriatr Cogn Discord 2007;23(5):321-6.
6. Durga J et al. Effect of 3-year folic acid supplementation on cognitive function in older adults in the FACIT trial: A randomised double blind controlled trial. The Lancet 2007;369:208-16.
7. Xiaobin Wang et al. Efficacy of folic acid supplementation in stroke prevention: a meta-analysis. The Lancet 2007;369:1876-82.

www.bmj.com
www.thelancet.com
www.ajcn.org

Overlooked B-vitamin Might Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease

Claus Hancke

September 27, 2004

In the search for substances that might prevent Alzheimer’s disease, the focus has mainly been on antioxidants like Vitamin E and Gingko biloba as well as the B-vitamins B12, B6, and folic acid. However, an American study now indicates that the quite unnoticed B-vitamin Niacin as being able to play a role too.

For 90 years, it has been clear that niacin is important to the nervous system and that severe niacin deficiency can cause dementia – as part of the deficiency disease pellagra. The wonder is that, until now, nobody has made a link between this kind of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

So far, the study has involved 6158 inhabitants of Chicago. They were all above 65 years of age and the plan was to register their diet and follow them every third year with psychological tests for dementia. They succeeded in doing so with 3718 of the trial subjects. Among these, 815 people who did not have Alzheimer’s disease at the beginning of the trial were randomly chosen. They were divided into five groups according to their intake of niacin.

131 people in the latter group were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease during the following four years. It turned out, however, that in the 20% who had the lowest intake of niacin (on average 12.5 mg. a day), the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease was more than three times as high compared to the ones with the highest intake (22.4 mg. a day or more). This was the result after statistical adjustments for known or suspected causes of the disease had been performed.

Both dietary niacin and niacin from vitamin tablets were included in the study. Good dietary sources of niacin are whole meal, liver, meat, fish, milk, legumes, – and coffee! Brewer’s yeast is also a good source of niacin, but, unfortunately, the same does not apply for beer! The average Englishman gets 2/3 of his niacin from meat, beverages, milk, and cheese, while only 1/8 comes from vegetables.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Morris MC, Evans DA, Bienias JL, Scherr PA, Tangney CC, Hebert LE, Bennett DA, Wilson RS, Aggarwal N. Dietary niacin and the risk of incident Alzheimer’s disease and of cognitive decline. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2004;75(8):1093-9.
2. National Food Agency of Denmark (Levnedsmiddelstyrelsen): Nutrient recommendations, 1992 (Naeringsstofanbefalinger, 1992).

jnnp.bmjjournals.com
www.fvst.dk
www.iom.dk