Folic Acid Deficiency and Dementia

· Folic Acid deficiency triples the risk of developing dementia in elderly people according to a recent article on the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

· Investigators of this study found that subjects with folic acid deficiency were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia during their study.
· Interestingly, study subjects who had low to normal folic acid levels were also noted to have an increased risk of developing dementia.

· The study included 518 subjects aged 65 and older and ran over a 2 year period of time.

· Folic Acid (Folate) is one of the B vitamins and supplements are widely available.

· Folic Acid and B12 vitamin deficiencies have previously been suspected to increase risk of developing dementia.

· This study is unique in that it shows low to normal levels of Folic Acid are also associated with dementia risk.

February 7, 2009

Posted on February 7, 2009

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