Writing in the Archives of Neurology, lead author Jose Luchsinger from Columbia University Medical Center, New York, reports that after analyzing the diets of 965 individuals, and then following them for about six years, the highest intake of folate from both dietary and supplements was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Ninety-eight per cent of these dietary assessments were obtained in 1996 or earlier, before the introduction of mandatory folate fortification of grain - an overwhelming body of evidence linked folate deficiency in early pregnancy to increased risk of neural tube defects (NTD) in infants.
After an average of 6.1 years of follow-up, 192 cases of Alzheimer’s disease had been diagnosed. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, like age, sex, ethnicity, cardiovascular history and B6 and B12 intake, Luchsinger and co-workers report that increasing folate intake, from both dietary and supplemental sources, was associated with a significantly reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease (50 per cent risk reduction).
Higher folate intake was modestly correlated with lower homocysteine levels, "indirectly suggesting that a lower homocysteine level is a potential mechanism for the association between higher folate intake and a lower Alzheimer's disease risk," said the authors.
The researchers stress that no definitive conclusion about the role of folate in the development of Alzheimer's disease can be made, since the findings are at odds with previously published studies.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Charles S. Robertson Memorial Gift for research on Alzheimer's disease, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Foundation, and the New York City Council Speaker's Fund for Public Health Research.
Steve - piggybacking on today's AJCN entry, more positive data on how important folate is for cognitive function.
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