Simple Vitamins Could Hold Key to Alzheimer's

[Guest guest]

http://healthy.net/asp/templates/news.asp?Id=6714

Simple Vitamins Could Hold Key to Alzheimer's Scientists Believe Folic Acid

Could Be Wonder Cure for the Degenerative Brain Disease, But Lack Funding to

Test Their Theory

RESEARCHERS HAVE uncovered compelling evidence of a possible cause of

Alzheimer's disease, the degenerative brain condition that affects 500,000

people in Britain alone.

 

Scientists in America have shown a link between high levels of homocysteine, a

molecule in the blood, with shrinkage of the brain in middle age, which can

later lead to Alzheimer's.

The discovery raises the possibility that a simple course of vitamins might be

all that is needed to prevent millions of people succumbing to the illness.

There is already strong evidence linking homocysteine with heart disease,

deep-vein thrombosis and stroke. The discovery that it might also play a role in

dementia is causing widespread interest among specialists because an individual

can lower his or her homocysteine level by taking folic acid supplements.

David Smith, a leading British authority on Alzheimer's disease, said yesterday

that a study was now needed to establish whether a course of vitamins could

safely combat the condition.

Prof Smith, a professor of pharmacology at Oxford University and the director of

the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, said that as many as 15 per

cent of all dementia cases might be due to homocysteine: reducing high levels in

the blood could therefore prevent hundreds of thousands of cases.

" That is of major significance not only because they and their families benefit

but also because enormous sums could be saved, " he said.

The latest research will be announced at a meeting of the American Academy of

Neurology in Hawaii next month. It suggests that homocysteine is having an

effect on the brain decades before people develop obvious signs of dementia.

Philip Wolf, a professor of neurology at the Boston University School of

Medicine, explained that the findings were based on MRI scans performed on more

than 1,000 apparently healthy individuals aged between 50 and 70.

" It turned out that those who had the higher homocysteine levels six or eight

years ago had the smaller brain volumes and performed less well in tests, " he

said.

The results add to previous findings suggesting that homocysteine may play an

important part in mental as well as physical ageing.

" Either the homocysteine produces changes in the arteries and so affects the

brain, or there is a toxic effect. It is not clear which mechanism is working

here, " Prof Wolf said.

Alzheimer's disease currently affects some half a million people in Britain and

this figure is expected to rise to 750,000 within 20 years, largely because the

population is living longer. Martin Knapp, a professor at the London School of

Economics, calculates that the cost to the nation will double from pounds 4.6

billion a year in 1998 to pounds 11 billion annually.

Homocysteine levels can be easily measured - tests cost as little as pounds 4 a

time and are widely used in the US and Europe, although not the UK. If folic

acid is taken to reduce homocysteine levels, the vitamins B12 and B6 must be

taken along with it, because of the way the molecules interact.

A review in the British Medical Journal recently calculated that 0.8mg of folic

acid a day would lower homocysteine levels sufficiently to cut a person's risk

of a heart attack by 16 per cent, stroke by 24 per cent and deep-vein thrombosis

by 25 per cent. In America, the government has ordered food to be fortified with

the vitamin in the hope of reducing cardiovascular problems in the general

population. Prof Smith, whose team first suggested that homocysteine and

Alzheimer's might be linked, has plans for a study involving 6,000 people with

early signs of memory loss, half to be given the vitamin and half a placebo.

However, he and his colleagues are struggling to find the pounds 6 million to

pay for it. The amount for the five-year study is equal to almost the entire

annual budget for Alzheimer's research in Britain.

Prof Smith said he could not at this stage recommend widespread prescribing of

vitamins to reduce Alzheimer's disease rates. He cautioned that cancer cells are

also known to need folic acid and said it was not known what the effect of high

levels of folate on people with or at risk of cancer would be.

He added, however: " There is a molecule in the blood that seems to be associated

with damage to the brain: that has to be important. What we do need - urgently -

is a proper randomised trial. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

Web Hosting - establish your business online