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Lee Swanson Research Update
Folic Acid and B-12 Show Brain Function Benefit in the Elderly
January 2012
Long term supplementation with folic acid and vitamin B-12 may promote improvements in brain functioning in older patients, according to new research.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, investigated whether oral supplementation of folic acid and B-12 reduced cognitive decline in older people with high levels of psychological distress.
The research, led by Janine Walker from the Australian National University, is the latest study to find a potential link between supplementation of the vitamins and potential benefits to brain functions, with the researchers reporting that a daily oral dose of folic acid and B-12 "promotes improvement in cognitive functioning after 24 months, particularly in immediate and delayed memory performance."
Brain functioning is known to naturally decline as we age; however, there is evidence to suggest that both folic acid and vitamin B-12 play important roles in healthy brain aging—with many studies suggesting that low levels of the nutrients can lead to more rapid deterioration in cognitive functions.
Such declines in functions are often a warning sign of dementia—a term used to describe various different brain disorders that have a progressive loss of brain function in common. There are many types of dementia, the most common being Alzheimer's disease.
Long-term deficiencies in vitamins such as B-12, folate and niacin, are known to have similar effects on the brain degeneration, leading to the suspicion that such vitamins play a role in the development of dementia.
Walker and her team conducted the randomized, controlled trial with a completely crossed factorial design. The two-year-long intervention compared a daily oral dose of 400 mcg of folic acid plus 100 mcg of vitamin B-12 to a placebo.
Main outcome measures examined change in cognitive functioning at 12 and 24 months by using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-Modified (TICS-M) and the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone, to test processing speed.
The authors reported that after 24 months, folic acid plus vitamin B-12 improved the TICS-M total, TICS-M immediate and TICS-M delayed recall scores in comparison with placebo. However, the team found no significant changes in orientation, attention, semantic memory, processing speed or informant reports.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 95(1):194-203, 2012
