Brain Health and Vitamin B9

I just read a fascinating article on LinkedIn about brain health and vitamin B9 and felt compelled to share it with you immediately.

A little personal background…Brain health is front and center as a concern for me as my mother suffered with vascular dementia and my father had the version of delusional dementia associated with Parkinsons Disease.

In this article, titled, “One Nutrient Benefits Alzheimer’s”, Dr. Mike Greenberg sites a study done with nuns, brains and folic acid, also known as vitamin B9. It’s a quick but fascinating read. He writes:

“The most remarkable scientific study done to figure out Alzheimer’s was performed in a 15 year period involving over 300 nuns. The nun study was reported by Time magazine in 2001. This was a landmark research study because of the ability to isolate hundreds of variables in a controlled environment. And the nuns allowed the scientists to study their brains after death. The study found that active nuns often faired better mentally than inactive nuns, but that it wasn’t absolute. Nuns that prayed a lot or even meditated often did as well as the active nuns. The one and only variable that was across the board, was the nuns deficient in folate had markedly more dementia than the nuns who had sufficient amounts of folate. In fact, the nuns that had high amounts of folic acid had virtually no dementia.”

Here is the link so you can read the entire article.

I play at least one brain game every day. The older I get, the more important maintaining my brain health becomes, so I will look into this subject further and may add the recommended supplementation of Vitamin B9 to my daily vitamins.

What’s your take on this?

Helping You Achieve Major Wellness!

Cheryl A Major

I am a Certified Nutrition and Wellness Consultant. My TV show, “Thin Strong Healthy”, airs on WestfordCat and is an offshoot of my blog http://ThinStrongHealthy.com I offer ongoing information, live and online courses and personal health coaching to help you feel better and be healthier. Follow me on Twitter @CherylAMajor.

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