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Folate
deficiency associated with tripling of
Dementia risk
Newswise — Folate
deficiency is associated with a tripling in
the risk of developing dementia among
elderly people, suggests research published
ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology
Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The researchers tracked
the development of dementia in 518 people
over two years from 2001 to 2003. All
participants were over the age of 65 and
lived in one rural and one urban area in the
south of the country.
Validated tests were
carried out at the start and end of the two
year period to find out if they had a
dementing illness.
Similarly, blood tests
were taken to assess levels of folate,
vitamin B12, and the protein homocysteine,
and how these changed over time.
High levels of
homocysteine have been associated with
cardiovascular disease.
At the start of the two
year period, almost one in five people had
high levels of homocysteine, while 17% had
low vitamin B12 levels and 3.5% were folate
deficient.
The higher the levels of
folate to begin with, the higher were
vitamin B12 levels, and the lower those of
homocysteine.
By the end of the study,
45 people had developed dementia. Of these,
34 had Alzheimer’s disease, seven had
vascular dementia, and four had “other”
types of dementia.
Dementia was more likely
in those who were older, relatively poorly
educated, inactive, and had deposits of the
protein ApoE.
The onset of dementia was
significantly more likely in those whose
folate levels then fell further over the two
years, while their homocysteine levels rose.
People who were folate
deficient to begin with, were almost 3.5
times more likely to develop dementia.
The authors suggest that
changes in micronutrients could be linked
with the other typical signs that precede
dementia, including weight loss and low
blood pressure.
While weight loss is
unlikely to alter micronutrients levels in
the blood, it may indicate dietary changes
in the quality of quantity of food intake.
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