What our Nutrition 355 professor called another B vitamin is now beginning to be recognized as one of our most crucial nutrients. Scientists have documented that folate strengthens the immune system, promotes intellectual growth and sound eyesight, delivers anti-aging properties, protects against cervical cancer, strokes, heart and artery disease, and various neurological disorders. The most recent discovery of folate s benefits was announced at an international scientific conference in the Netherlands the week of April 27, 1998. A team of British, Norwegian, and Dutch scientists unveiled its findings that folate holds a very promising and very simple protection against Alzheimer s disease. In its study of hundreds of British patients, the team found a link between Alzheimer s and high levels of homocysteine, a chemical produced by the body.
Folic acid cuts homocysteine levels.
The idea of reducing the risk of Alzheimer s disease by diet is a promising hypothesis, said researcher Professor Helga Refsum of Bergen University, Norway. The amount of folate required by humans has been subject to constant change, but the change is constantly upward. Elderly persons taking in less than 200 mcg daily were six times more likely to have dangerously high homocysteine than those getting 400 mcg. By directive, the percentage of RDA listed on all those boxes of shreds, flakes, puffs, and O s is calculated at the rate of 400 mcg per day. The majority of folate research reports include recommendations to supplement.