Folic acid can improve brain power
Regular intake of folic acid in the elderly brain performance improve considerably. The Dutch scientists have demonstrated in a three-year study of more than 800 trial participants aged 50 to 75 years.
The study participants were divided into two groups. Some received a daily 800 microgram (μ = micro grams μικρός, micro = small = 0.000 001 = 1 millionth) folic acid supplementation, the other only a placebo (placebo), so no folic acid. The folic acid group was better and could Gedächnisleistungen Process information faster, the Dutch report as Jane Durga of Wageningen University and colleagues in the British medical journal The Lancet (vol. 369, page 208).
With increasing age, the power from the brain normally, and researchers have long assumed that a low folate value is coupled with an increase of the harmful amino acid homocysteine in the blood responsible for it. An elevated homocysteine blood levels also favors dementia and probably Alzheimer's. All study participants had initially elevated homocysteine in the blood. In the subjects who received folic acid homocysteine blood levels decreased during the study. At various Tests on the perception and reaction rate cut it off even better than that of the placebo group. Their services were on average comparable to those of two to five years younger man.
According to the German Nutrition Society (DGE) take almost all Germans too little folic acid through the diet. We recommend a daily dose of 400 micrograms. Whole grains, liver and vegetables like spinach and broccoli contain this vitamin from the vitamin B complex. A deficiency can lead to diseases of the cardiovascular system and in pregnancy the embryo to birth defects, especially in the central nervous system lead. In countries such as Canada and the U.S. have long folic acid flour-containing foods added. This gives folic acid deficiency-related diseases, particularly in neonates, decreased significantly.
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Folic acid belongs to the group of the vitamin B complex. The vitamin was discovered in 1941 and then won the first time from spinach leaves. It was named after the Latin word for leaf = folium.
Folic acid plays a key role in vital processes in our bodies: Folic acid is all growth and developmental processes important, because with their help, components made of nucleic acids. The nucleic acids are the material of genes, the biological information storage in the cells.
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the material from which the genes are (Wikipedia)
in the form of tetrahydrofolate (THF) can also bind the vitamin to pass small molecules and carbon. These carbon molecules play an important role in many reactions in metabolism. They each consist of a carbon atom and different binding partners. Shall transfer to the tetrahydrofolic acid such as those Einkohlenstoffmoleküle to certain substances that are only in this way to the starting material for the construction of the genetic hereditary material deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and also of many proteins.
is also the folic acid, along with vitamin B 12, essential in the formation of red blood cells, bone marrow. A lack of either of these vitamins can therefore be easily detectable at the CBC. In addition, folate deficiency increases the levels of homocysteine in the blood, because this amino acid normally with the help of tetrahydrofolic acid in the amino acid Methionine is converted in turn wird.Methionin involved in many metabolic processes, such as the protein synthesis in cells. High homocysteine levels promote cardiovascular disease, dementia and Alzheimer's.
Adequate folic acid intake is very important in pregnancy and in young people, particularly because of the growing organism builds up a lot of proteins and genetic information is copied to the new cells.
can in this context, a study by Wissentschaftlern Columbia University, New York sit up (Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA). , Who evaluated the diet of about 1,000 senior citizens without dementia, and pursued in the years to which participants diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. For those people taking that folic acid, both with food and with food supplements, the disease was clearly less frequently.
Jens Christian Heuer
Sources:
The Lancet ( http://www.thelancet.com/ )
Jama ( http:// jama.ama-assn.org / )
