Now that all of you are beginning to learn about
5'methyltetrahydrofolate it is important to realize that the MTHFR
mutation, which is found in every Autistic child, means essentially
that they can be harmed by taking Folic Acid in supplements, as it
is the wrong form for them to handle.

Now, with increasing age, all of us have less efficient methylation
putting many of us at risk for responding optimally to only the
expensive form of Folic Acid patented by Merck. Unfortunately, they
recently increased their price from around $8K per KG to $14K per KG
meaning only the wealthy can afford the optimal form of the vitamin
for anyone with MTHFR mutations.

Many of us are growing older where, with our declining methylation,
most of us would be far better served with a small amount of folinic
acid and getting most of our folic acid as the expensive 5'METHYL
form if we rely on supplements. But it just happens that 5"methyl
is the predominant form in lettuce and many of these leafy green
foods!

Thus, we should always be prepared to learn more. If some research
suggests higher doses of Folic Acid supplementation are associated
with an increase in Alzheimer's Disease, we must not first shoot the
messenger, perhaps we need to carefully review again and again
everything we think we know; maybe it is because Folic Acid is the
wrong form for many of us.

This is very sad, as if this if correct, over time we will need to
have our patients guided to taking multiple vitamins that have no
folic acid, as taking it could jeopardize our receiving the benefits
from taking the right form, the expensive 5"methyltetrahydrofolate,
or we may all have to eat our leafy green vegetables. Fortunately
we have Beyond B12 with Folic Acid and can all benefit by taking it
sublingually.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
not allowed class="postlink" href="http://www.gordonresearch.com">www.gordonresearch.com

Leafy Green Vegetables May Help Keep Brains Sharp Through Aging

According to a recent report in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, folate, a B vitamin found in foods like leafy green
vegetables and citrus fruit, may protect against cognitive decline
in older adults. The research was conducted by scientists at the
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University.

A team led by Katherine L. Tucker, PhD, director and professor of
the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, studied a group of Boston-
area men who were members of the ongoing Normative Aging Study
(NAS). Tucker and her colleagues found that men who obtained more
folate in their diets showed significantly less of a decline in
verbal fluency skills over the course of three years than did men
with lower dietary folate intake.

High folate levels, both in the diet and in the blood, also appeared
to be protective against declines in another category of cognitive
skills known as spatial copying. To test this, the 50- to 85-year-
old study participants were asked to copy various shapes and
figures, and their drawings were assessed for accuracy. "The men
took a series of cognitive tests at the beginning of the study
period and then repeated those tests three years later," explained
Tucker. "We compared their first and second scores, reviewed their
responses to dietary questionnaires, and took blood samples in order
to see if nutrient levels in the diet and the blood were related to
changes in cognitive performance."

In an earlier study with the same NAS group, which corroborated the
findings of other investigators, the Tufts research team observed
that high homocysteine--a known blood marker of cardiovascular
disease risk--was associated with lower cognitive test scores.
Since folate supplementation can help reduce blood levels of
homocysteine, it was thought that this might explain folate's
beneficial effects. However, in the current study, the effects of
folate were independent of its impact on homocysteine, which turned
out to be more strongly associated with tests of memory.

"Unlike our prior work with this population, in which we observed an
association between low folate levels and lower cognitive test
scores at one point in time, this study looks at the effects of
these nutrients over time." Tucker says, "That is an important step
in establishing causality."

Tucker KL, Qiao N, Scott T, Rosenberg I, Spiro A, III. American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2005; 82: 627. "High homocysteine and
low B vitamins predict cognitive decline in aging men: the Veterans
Affairs Normative Aging Study."

Source: Tufts University
Date: 2005-09-26
URL: not allowed class="postlink" href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050926082256.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 082256.htm