Folic Acid

What vitamin can be vital to our health before we're born, and possibly help us fend off Alzheimer disease when we're older? It's folic acid, sometimes called folate. Folic acid is a B vitamin found in multivitamin pills and in some vitamin enriched foods, like bread and breakfast cereals. Folate is the natural form of the substance, and it is found in various green vegetables, beans and fruit.

Folic acid is believed to help prevent spina bifida and other "neural tube" birth defects, so women who could possibly get pregnant are urged to make sure they're getting enough of the vitamin -- most easily by taking a vitamin supplement.

Now researchers specializing in aging at the National Institutes of Health have found that adequate amounts of folic acid in the diets of specially bred mice seemed to reduce the effects of brain plaques similar to those found in Alzheimer patients. The mice were bred with the mutant genes that cause Alzheimer disease in people.

People with Alzheimer disease often have low levels of folic acid in their blood. Now researchers will work on devising tests in humans to determine whether boosting those folic acid levels could help prevent the development of Alzheimer disease.

March 16, 2002

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