16.jan.07
New York Times
Nicholas Bakalar
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/health/16risk.html
A new study was cited as suggesting that higher folate intake from food and supplements may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers followed 965 Medicare recipients 65 or older for an average of six years, administering diet questionnaires to estimate their intake of folate, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, and performing medical examinations at about 18-month intervals. Members of the study group lived in northern Manhattan, were largely Hispanic and black, and had high levels of diabetes, hypertension and other vascular risk factors. Alzheimer’s developed in 192 of them.
After adjusting for age, hypertension, current smoking and other variables, those in the highest one-quarter in total folate intake, from both diet and supplements, were 50 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those in the lowest one-quarter. There was no significant association of Alzheimer’s risk with dietary folate alone, or with vitamin B12 or vitamin B6 intake.