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December 29th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda WEDNESDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) — Older adults with high
levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins B, C, D and E in their blood
performed better on certain measures of thinking abilities, and also
tended to have larger brain volume, a new study finds.
Seniors with high levels of trans fats in their blood fared worse on
certain thinking tests than those with lower levels of the unhealthy fats,
and also had more brain shrinkage.
Researchers said the findings suggest that nutrients work “in synergy”
with one another to be protective of brain health.
“For people with a vitamin profile high in B, C, D, E, those particular
nutrients seem to be working together on some level,” said lead study
author Gene Bowman, an assistant professor in the department of neurology
at Oregon Health Science University in Portland. “Having high scores
for those vitamins was associated with better cognitive function and
larger brain volume.”
The study is published in the Dec. 28 online edition and the Jan. 24
print issue of the journal Neurology.
In the study, researchers measured levels of more than 30 nutrients in
the blood of 104 people with an average age of 87. Overall, participants
were well-educated, healthy nonsmokers who had relatively few chronic
diseases and were free of memory and thinking problems. Researchers also
did MRI scans of 42 participants to measure their brain volume.
Some amount of brain atrophy, or shrinkage, occurs with aging. More
significant shrinkage is associated with mental decline and Alzheimer’s
disease.
The investigators found that the various nutrients seemed to affect
different aspects of thinking, suggesting that they work on different
pathways in the brain.
People with high levels of vitamins B, C, D and E performed better on
tests of executive function and attention, and had better visuospatial
skills and global cognitive function. They also had bigger brains, the
study authors noted.
Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in foods such as salmon, were
associated with better executive function and with fewer changes to the
white matter of the brain, but there was no association between omega-3s
and any of the other measures of mental abilities.
“Executive function” is a term used to describe higher level thinking
involving planning, attention and problem solving. In this case, seniors
were asked to do an exercise that involved matching the number 1 with the
letter A, the number 2 with B, and so on, which shows flexibility in
thought, Bowman explained.
White matter changes can be indicative of damage to the small blood
vessels of the brain, he said.
The people with high levels of trans fats performed worse on tests of
mental abilities and had smaller brains, according to the report.
Dr. Marc Gordon, chief of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen
Oaks, N.Y., said the study is “intriguing.” While most studies ask people
to recall what they ate, in this one, researchers actually measured what
participants had absorbed by using blood biomarkers.
“Two issues make this approach more valid,” said Gordon, also an
Alzheimer’s researcher at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in
Manhasset, N.Y. “One could be the unreliability of people’s recollections
about what they ate, and the other is that just because someone ate
something doesn’t mean they absorbed it.”
However, he said, the group studied was unique in that they were
unusually healthy for their age. The results might be different in a less
healthy group of seniors. Prior research, for example, looked at giving
people with Alzheimer’s omega-3 fatty acid supplements and found it didn’t
help.
The researchers noted that because their study was observational,
meaning they found an association between certain nutrients and brain
characteristics rather than showing cause-and-effect, it’s too soon to
tell everyone to start taking a vitamin containing B, C, D and E.
In addition, another variable is that older people who eat lots of
foods containing those nutrients may have difficulty absorbing them.
Even so, the study suggests it makes good sense to limit trans fats,
which are often found in fried foods, doughnuts, pastries, pizza dough,
cookies, crackers and stick margarines and shortenings, and to eat lots of
fruits, vegetables and fatty fish.
“The question is: Do people need to eat healthier foods, or do they
need to stay away from unhealthy foods? It looks like you need to do both.
Eat more healthy foods and stay away from unhealthy foods,” Bowman
said.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more on eating a
nutritious diet as you age.
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