Originally published August 22 2005
Don't forget your folates to help fight Alzheimer's
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Experts on Alzheimer's have discovered that the risk of developing the disease is greatly reduced by eating the recommended daily intake of folates.
The major observational study demonstrates the importance of healthy diet for long-term brain health and found that folates appear to have more impact on reducing Alzheimer's risk than vitamin E, a noted antioxidant, and other nutrients considered for their effect as a brain-aging deterrent.
In the study, Maria Corrada and Dr. Claudia Kawas of UC Irvine's Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia, analyzed the diets of non-demented men and women age 60 and older.
They then compared the food nutrient and supplement intake of those who later developed Alzheimer's disease to the intake of those who did not develop the disease.
To date this is the largest study to report on the association between folate intake and Alzheimer's risk and to analyze antioxidants and B vitamins simultaneously.
Both Corrada, and Kawas started the study while at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and they say that, although folates appear to be more beneficial than other nutrients, the primary message should be that overall healthy diets seem to have an impact on limiting the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
In their work the researchers used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, to identify the relationship between dietary factors and Alzheimer's disease risk.
Corrada, who is an assistant professor of neurology, says that participants who had intakes at or above the 400-microgram recommended dietary allowance of folates had a 55-percent reduction in risk of developing Alzheimer's.
But it seems that most people who reached that level did so by taking folic acid supplements, which suggests that many people do not get the recommended amounts of folates in their diets.
The study was originally undertaken at the Gerontology Research Center of the NIA and the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins.
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