MONDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A three-year course of folic acid supplements may reduce age-related cognitive function declines in middle-aged and older adults, according to the results of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial published in the Jan. 20 issue of The Lancet.
Jane Durga, Ph.D., of Wageningen University in Wageningen, the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted, as part of the Folic Acid and Carotid Intima-media Thickness (FACIT) trial, a study of 818 patients in the Netherlands aged 50 to 70 years. Subjects were randomized to receive a daily oral dose of 800 μg folic acid or placebo for three years. At the end of the study, the researchers measured participants' memory, sensorimotor speed, complex speed, information processing speed and word fluency.
In the folic acid group, serum folate concentrations rose 576 percent and plasma total homocysteine concentrations declined by 26 percent. Memory, information processing speed and sensorimotor speed were better in the folic acid group compared to the placebo group.
In an accompanying editorial, Martha Clare Morris, Sc.D., and Christine Tangney, Ph.D., of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, point out that the study participants' dietary intake of folate levels fell well below recommended levels. "Many individuals within populations have folate intakes that might be suboptimum for physiological function," they write. "To make more informed dietary recommendations for optimum folate intake, we need randomized trials that take the approach of the FACIT trial."
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