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Study: Extra folic acid may help guard against memory loss
By Lauran Neergaard
AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON - High-dose folic acid pills - providing as much of the nutrient as 2.5 pounds of strawberries - might help slow the cognitive decline of aging. So says a Dutch study that's the first to show a vitamin could really improve memory.
The research, unveiled June 20 at a meeting of Alzheimer's researchers, adds to mounting evidence that a diet higher in folate is important for a variety of health effects. It's already proven to reduce birth defects, and research suggests it helps ward off heart disease and strokes, too.
The new study doesn't show folic acid could prevent Alzheimer's - the people who tested the vitamin didn't have symptoms of that disease.
But as people age, some decline in memory and other brain functions is inevitable. Taking 800 micrograms of folic acid a day slowed that brain drain, reported lead researcher Jane Durga of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
In the study, 818 cognitively healthy people ages 50 to 75 swallowed either folic acid or a dummy pill for three years.
On memory tests, the supplement users had scores comparable to people 5.5 years younger, Durga said. On tests of cognitive speed, the folic acid helped users perform as well as people 1.9 years younger.
That's significant brain protection, with a supplement that's already well-known to be safe, said Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist Marilyn Albert, who chairs the Alzheimer's Association's science advisory council.
"I think I would take folic acid, assuming my doctor said it was OK," Albert said. "We know Alzheimer's disease, the pathology, begins many, many years before the symptoms. We ought to be thinking about the health of our brain the same way we think about the health of our heart."
Indeed, there's enough research now suggesting that there are ways to gird the brain against age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's that the association has begun offering classes to teach people the techniques.
Topping the list:
In youth, that means good education. Later in life, do puzzles, learn to play chess, take classes.
Experts recommend going for the triple-whammy of something mentally, physically and socially stimulating all at once: Coach your child's ball team. Take a dance class. Strategize a round of golf.
Diet's also important. While Alzheimer's researchers have long recommended a heart-healthy diet as good for the brain, the folic acid study is the first to test the advice directly.
Previous studies have shown that people with low folate levels in their blood are more at risk for both heart disease and diminished cognitive function.
Durga said it's not clear how folic acid might work to protect the brain. Some studies suggest folate lowers inflammation; others suggest it may play a role in expression of dementia-related genes.
Folate is found in such foods as oranges and strawberries, dark-green leafy vegetables and beans. In the United States, it also is added to cereal and flour products.
CDC: Children need an hour of exercise per day
By Daniel Yee
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA - Children should get an hour of exercise over the course of each day, a panel of national obesity experts has concluded, seeking to end confusion on the matter.
"Physical activity is essential for health. This just puts a number on the amount of physical activity children should receive or shoot for," said Dr. William Dietz, director of nutrition and physical activity for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded the panel. The recommendation was made earlier this month.
The committee was created to cut through conflicting advice on children's exercise - 27 different groups have their own recommendations.
"People get confused about what they should do," Dietz said. Federal health officials hopes the different organizations will adopt the panel's advice so parents will get a unified message from the health community.
The panel reviewed more than 850 existing studies on child physical activity and found that most recommended 30 to 45 minutes of continuous activity.
But the panel decided that 60 minutes of exercise was more appropriate because children typically are active in "fits and spurts" rather than in a continuous manner, said Dr. William Strong, a co-chairman of the panel.
"What we're trying to say is that you accumulate this over the day - it doesn't have to be in one particular spurt of activity," said Strong, a retired professor of medicine at the Medical College of Georgia.
Children should be given the chance to take part in a variety of physical activity, from walking to jumping rope to competitive sports.
"The reality is children aren't going to be physically active unless it's fun," Dietz said.
It's an important issue because besides helping control weight, regular exercise reduces the risk for heart attack, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, and may reduce their risk for stroke.
"The real issue is not that children are having immediate problems, but that if we don't do something about this now, 20 to 30 years from now we'll have a severe epidemic of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome," Strong said.
The CDC previously said that more than a third of high school students nationwide do not engage in vigorous physical activity, such as running or playing sports like basketball or soccer.
Daily participation in high school physical education classes dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 32 percent in 2001, according to the latest data from the CDC.
Dietz said that in Atlanta, where the health agency is based, children have "substantial difficulties" in being active.
"Most children (in Atlanta) can't walk to school because of traffic and because of the way communities are designed," he said.
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