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The brain’s power and function may be discovered by several B vitamins. It was suggested by the new research in United States.
“The low levels of the B vitamin, folate, are associated with symptoms of dementia and “cognitive decline” in brain function.” Lindsay Allen, a U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritionist said.

Scientists from the University of California-Davis, the UCD Medical Center and the University of California-San Francisco along with Allen collaborated on the long-term research project called the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging.

Allen explaining in news release that studies that began in 1996 done before that time were inconclusive and had confusing results. Now, 1,800 Hispanics ages 60 to 101 included into the team.

“AOL Health that particularly B-12 deficiency has been very common in developing countries because the only foods you can get it from are animal sources, such as milk, eggs and meet, and many people in poor countries don’t consume them.” Allen stated.

Allen also says “B-12 deficiency is also very common in the elderly U.S. population because they stop being able to absorb it from their diet as they grow older. We think supplements will work in the elderly because even though they can’t absorb it naturally through food, they can through supplements.”

The team was collected blood samples from the volunteers to be analyzed. They led by Mary Haan of UC San Francisco.

Researchers found that the decrease in brain function in participants with low levels of folate was detectable despite less than one percent of them being deficient.
The study also found that women with low folate levels fared worse than men. Women in the bottom third subgroup with a folate deficiency more than doubled their risk for depression, when compared to those in the highest third.

“Folate is also important in women who are trying to start a family” Said Dr. Laura Corio, AOL women’s health expert.

She added to AOL Health “Women in their reproductive years need at least one milligram of folate in their system before they try to conceive to decrease their incidence of neural tube defects in their fetus.”
New evidence of an association between lower blood folate and depression, which is already known to affect brain function provided by this research.

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