Folic Acid Helps Fight Alzheimer’s Disease by Improving Inflammation Levels

by | Aug 19, 2016 | 2016, Alzheimer's Disease, Brain Health, Folic Acid & Folate

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. A current study of 121 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s revealed that those who took 1250 micrograms of folic acid for 6 months significantly improved mental health scores by 5.1% and significantly reduced inflammatory protein levels by  41.7% compared to those who took donepezil.  

aging-Main-PageAlzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia in the elderly 1 and is the most significant contributor to the $215 billion that dementia costs our healthcare system each year 2. It is characterized by memory loss and cognitive decline and leads to death within 7 to 10 years of diagnosis 3.  A central mechanism thought to be behind the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease is inflammation 4,5. As a result, finding ways to help maintain healthy levels of inflammation may be one way to help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

A 2016 study 5 involved 121 patients (71 men, 50 women) aged 60 to 74 who were newly diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s Disease 6. They received a medication for Alzheimer’s disease (donepezil) and either folic acid (1,250 micrograms per day = 61 patients) or a placebo (60 patients) per day for 6 months. Before and after the study, patients completed The Mini-Mental State Examination 7 and provided blood samples to measure for levels of inflammation.

After 6 months, those in the folic acid group had a 0.8% increase the Mini-mental State Examination (18.56 to 18.72) compared to a 4.8% decrease in the placebo-donepezil group (17.63 to 16.80, p = 0.041). Regarding the inflammatory proteins, those in the folic acid group had a 10.9% decrease (62.88 to 56.08 picograms/milliliter) compared to a 30.8% increase (85.89 to 112.42 pg/mL) in the placebo-donepezil group (p = 0.021).

In addition, the ratio of normal plaques to Alzheimer-related plaques in the brain (known as the A-beta 42/A-beta 40 ratio) decreased by 12.3% (2.12 to 1.86) in the folic acid group compared to 41.8% decrease in the placebo-donepezil group (1.46 to 0.85). This indicated a greater presence of healthy brain plaques in the folic acid group compared to the placebo-donepezil group.

For the researchers, “Folic acid is beneficial in patients with Alzheimer’s disease” and that “Inflammation may play an important role in the interaction between folic acid and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Source: Chen, Hui, Shuai Liu, Lu Ji, Tianfeng Wu, Yong Ji, Yuying Zhou, Miaoyan Zheng, Meilin Zhang, Weili Xu, and Guowei Huang. “Folic Acid Supplementation Mitigates Alzheimer’s Disease by Reducing Inflammation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Mediators of inflammation 2016 (2016).

© 2016 Hui Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 

Click here to read the full text study.

Posted August 18, 2016.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.

References:

  1. Evans DA, Funkenstein HH, Albert MS, et al. Prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in a community population of older persons. Higher than previously reported. Jama. 1989;262(18):2551-2556.
  2. Aging NIo. Prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease.
  3. Masters CL, Cappai R, Barnham KJ, Villemagne VL. Molecular mechanisms for Alzheimer’s disease: implications for neuroimaging and therapeutics. J Neurochem. 2006;97(6):1700-1725.
  4. Chouliaras L, Mastroeni D, Delvaux E, et al. Consistent decrease in global DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation in the hippocampus of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Neurobiol Aging. 2013;34(9):2091-2099.
  5. Gezen-Ak D, Dursun E, Hanağası H, et al. BDNF, TNFα, HSP90, CFH, and IL-10 serum levels in patients with early or late onset Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2013;37(1):185-195.
  6. Chen H, Liu S, Ji L, et al. Folic Acid Supplementation Mitigates Alzheimer’s Disease by Reducing Inflammation: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Mediators of Inflammation. 2016;2016.
  7. Jack CR, Jr., Albert MS, Knopman DS, et al. Introduction to the recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. 2011;7(3):257-262.