Take Folic Acid for Brain Health – Study

25/01/07 Dr. Jane Durga and colleagues from Wageningen University in the Netherlands have published findings from a double-blind, placebo controlled study on folic acid in the January 20 edition of The Lancet medical journal.

"We have shown that three-year folic acid supplementation improves performance on tests that measure information processing speed and memory, domains that are known to decline with age," report the researchers.

More than 800 participants were studied between the ages of 50 and 70 comparing the effects of folic acid supplements (800 micrograms per day, per participant) to a placebo. The researchers determined cognitive function improved significantly in participants who were taking folic acid.

"Folic acid is a nutrient often deficient in the elderly population because of medical, nutritional, and economic reasons," said Dr. Barbara Levine, Weill Cornell Medical College. "Among the many reasons for this: poor intake, poor appetite and medications that interfere with folic acid's absorption or metabolism. While many people think loss of cognition naturally occurs in the elderly, this may in part be a deficiency in folic acid."

Doctors are now using Animi-3 to reliably deliver, in a controlled, predictable manner, folic acid (1 mg) to different types of patients. Animi-3 is a prescription product that contains DHA (omega-3), folic acid, vitamin B12, and vitamin B6.

"It is also worthy to note that studies such as the Framingham Study indicate that the loss of omega-3 fatty acids in the brain may also result in a higher risk of stroke, memory, and dementia," added Dr. Levine.

"Animi-3 provides doctors with a way of accurately delivering folic acid as well as omega-3 fatty acids and B12. There are clear risk factors associated with deficiencies in these nutrients, as this study of cognitive function illustrates about folic acid," said PBM Pharmaceuticals EVP Jack Schramm, co-inventor of the Animi-3 formula.

PBM Pharmaceuticals is currently conducting a new double-blind, placebo controlled study of Animi-3 and dementia with Ernst J. Schaefer, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Animi-3 is indicated for improving nutritional status in conditions requiring DHA, Vitamin B12, B6, or folic acid supplementation.