Contact Vikki Franklin
~
More information on the Nun Study may be
obtained at www.coa.uky.edu/nunnet
See related stories in the May 17, 1999,
issues of the Lexington
Herald-Leader and the Louisville Courier-Journal.
~
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LEXINGTON, KY (May 17, 1999) – Folic acid
or folate – a common nutrient found in multivitamins, leafy green vegetables and
bread – may retard the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer’s disease,
according to new findings from the internationally-known Nun Study at the University of
Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. David Snowdon, Ph.D., lead author of the new
study, will release the findings at a presentation May 18 at the National Institutes of
Health in Bethesda, Md. Snowdon is one of four presenters of lectures in honor of the 100th
birthday of Florence Mahoney, a founding member of the National Advisory Council on Aging.
Folic acid has a well-established role in preventing congenital nervous system
abnormalities, such as spina bifida and mental retardation in children. "Folate is
important in the development of the human nervous system during pregnancy, and also may
play a role in the maintenance of the integrity of the brain in late life," Snowdon
said.
Recent findings from other studies suggest folate also may be important in preventing
coronary heart disease, stroke, and breast and colon cancers.
The Nun Study is a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer’s disease in 678
elderly School Sisters of Notre Dame who have lived in convents throughout the Midwestern,
Eastern, and Southern regions of the United States. Each participant agrees to yearly
examinations and to brain donation at death.
The nutritional findings were based on nuns who lived in the Mankato, Minn., convent,
ate from the same kitchen, and had comparable environments and lifestyles. Blood levels of
folate and other nutrients were assessed in 1993. Since then, 30 of those women died and
donated their brains for the study.
Low serum folate was associated strongly with shrinkage of the neocortex in these
women. The neocortex is the primary region of the brain affected in Alzheimer’s
disease. It is responsible for thinking, planning, communicating, and creativity, among
other functions.
"Slowing the destruction of the neocortex of the brain is a promising method of
preventing, or at least delaying, the symptoms, of Alzheimer’s disease," Snowdon
said.
In the study, low blood levels of folate correlated with the severity of atrophy of the
neocortex. The correlation particularly was strong among 15 participants with significant
numbers of Alzheimer’s disease lesions in the brain. None of 18 other nutrients and
nutritional markers had significant negative correlations with atrophy.
These findings are consistent with recent findings from Oxford, England, reported in Archives
of Neurology in November 1998 which also suggest that folate may minimize the
neurodegeneration of the brain in Alzheimer’s disease.
The National Institute on Aging, part of the NIH, has funded the Nun Study for the past
eight years. In addition to Snowdon, who is an associate professor in the Department of
Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, authors of the new findings are: William
Markesbery, M.D., director of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging; Kathryn Riley, Ph.D.,
associate professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health; Charles
Smith, M.D., associate professor, Department of Neurology; and Christine Tully, M.D.,
director of extended health care, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Columbia, S.C. |
