Nutrients help older adults maintain healthy brain function and reduce depressive symptoms
A combination of folic acid, vitamins B12 and E, S-adenosylmethionine, N-acetyl-cysteine and acetyl-L-carnitine, improved memory and mental ability in adults, and older adults with higher vitamin D levels had fewer depressive symptoms, new studies reveal.
Doctors in a brain performance study said that older adults may need to take supplements because they often eat fewer fruits and vegetables as they age. Researchers combined supplements that, in earlier studies, had improved brain function in Alzheimer’s disease. Healthy adult men and women took the formula, which contained 400 mcg of folic acid,
6 mcg of vitamin B12, 30 IU of alpha-tocopherol vitamin E, 400 mg of S-adenosylmethionine, 600 mg of N-acetyl-cysteine, and 500 mg of acetyl-L-carnitine per day, or a placebo.
After two weeks, in standard memory and mental ability tests, the supplement group improved significantly while the placebo group did not. When participants discontinued the supplements, test scores returned to lower levels seen at the start of the study. Participants then restarted the supplements for an additional three months and test scores improved further. “These findings suggest that people taking the nutriceutical formulation on a regular basis may be able to carry out complex mental tasks more quickly and more efficiently,” said study author Dr. Ruth Remington, continuing, “This is an approach that healthy adults can take to stay sharp as they age.”
In a depression study, researchers analyzed vitamin D levels and mood in 954 men and women, aged at least 65, and followed up for six years. Overall, as vitamin D levels rose, signs of depression decreased, and in women, those whose vitamin D levels were above 20 nanograms per milliliter of blood had far fewer depressive symptoms than women with lower vitamin D levels.
