Month: November 2023

Memory problems are one of the key symptoms of dementia.

A folate deficiency is linked to a tripling in the chance of developing dementia in older people, research finds.

Folates include vitamin B9, folacin and folic acid.

Healthy adults should get around 400mcg per day to prevent a deficiency.

Foods that are high in folates include leafy greens, beets, citrus fruits, broccoli, eggs and asparagus.

Folates are also usually contained in multivitamin supplements.

Low levels of vitamin B12 and folate have both been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease by multiple studies.

This link has been observed by researchers for more than three decades.

A deficiency in B12 or folate can cause higher levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the body.

Homocysteine has a neurotoxic effect and could lead to neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s.

For the current study, 518 people over the age of 65 were tracked for two years.

They were given blood tests for levels of folate, vitamin B12 and the protein homosysteine, along with cognitive tests.

The results showed that 45 people had developed dementia by the end of the study.

People who were deficient in folates were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia, the researchers found.

Dementia was also more likely in people whose folate levels dropped over the two years of the study.

The study’s authors write:

“In this prospective study of a community population, lower
folate concentrations predicted incident dementia and AD over
a 2.4 year follow-up period…

Over the follow-up period, dementia occurred more commonly in those with a relative decline in folate and vitamin B12 concentrations or a relative increase in homocysteine concentrations.”

A good diet is repeatedly linked by research to a reduced risk of dementia.

One study has found that people who eat more nuts, fish, poultry and certain fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, research finds.

Set against this, those who eat more red meats, organ meats, butter and high-fat dairy products have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.

The study was published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (Kim et al., 2019).

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Love cake? It tells people something about your personality.

People who like sweet foods literally have a sweeter personality, a psychology study finds.

Helpful people who volunteer to do good deeds prefer sweet foods, plus they are higher on the personality trait of agreeableness, the researchers found.

Professor Michael D. Robinson, study co-author, said:

“Our results suggest there is a real link between sweet tastes and pro-social behavior.

Such findings reveal that metaphors can lead to unique and provocative predictions about people’s behaviors and personality traits.”

For the research, participants tasted sweet or non-sweet foods and were asked about their views on food and personality.

Dr. Brian Meier, the study’s first author, said:

“Taste is something we experience every day.

Our research examined whether metaphors that link taste preferences with pro-social experiences (e.g., “she’s a sweetheart”) can be used to shed light on actual personality traits and behavior.”

The results revealed that people intuitively believe that those who like sweet food also have sweet personalities.

Dr Meier said:

“It is striking that helpful and friendly people are considered ‘sweet’ because taste would seem to have little in common with personality or behavior.

Yet, recent psychological theories of embodied metaphor led us to hypothesize that seemingly innocuous metaphors can be used to derive novel insights about personality and behavior.

Importantly, our taste studies controlled for positive mood so the effects we found are not due to the happy or rewarding feeling one may have after eating a sweet food.”

The results may not be the same in different cultures, Dr Meier said:

“Although we suggest our results are likely to be found in other cultures, that may not always be the case across all cultures.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Meier et al., 2011).

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Can intelligence help predict how long a marriage will last?

A man’s verbal intelligence helps to predict a longer marriage, suggesting it is also happier, research finds.

Higher verbal IQ also predicts getting married earlier in the relationship.

Higher verbal intelligence is particularly attractive to younger women, the study found.

Perhaps in the long haul of a marriage it’s most important to have someone who can make good conversation.

Longer marriage

In fact, all aspects of intelligence helped to predict length of marriage, it was just verbal intelligence that stood out — maybe because it is easier to spot than numerical or logical intelligence.

Another important factor in the marital equation the researchers developed was the man’s car.

Men with newer and more expensive cars were also more likely to remain married for longer.

The psychologists used the car as a signal of the man’s social status.

In other words, it is really higher social status that is linked to a longer marriage.

The study’s authors write:

“In parallel to the effect of a peacock’s mysterious tail on its mating success […] human intelligence has a direct positive impact on human mating prospects in terms of marriage.”

The authors conclude that:

“…verbal intelligence, i.e. the type of intelligence that is easier to observe, was found to especially predict the likelihood of getting married, while the harder-to-observe numerical and logical intelligence were also found to predict the likelihood to stay married, to an equal extent as verbal intelligence.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Aspara et al., 2018).

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Around one-in-four people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Pale skin or skin with a slight yellow tinge can be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency.

The body uses vitamin B12 to make red blood cells and to keep the nervous system healthy.

Without enough B12 the blood cells produced are too large and cannot move into the bloodstream, leading to pale skin.

Around one-quarter of people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Other, more common signs of vitamin B12 deficiency include feeling tired, experiencing muscle weakness and being constipated.

People experiencing a mood disorder, like depression, can also be deficient in vitamin B12.

People who may have difficulty getting enough vitamin B12 include vegetarians, older people and those with some digestive disorders, such as Crohn’s disease.

Some medications, such as those to treat ulcers and excessive stomach acid, are also linked to vitamin B12 deficiency.

One study of 25,956 patients diagnosed with a vitamin B12 deficiency found that the condition was linked to taking anti-acid medications.

The study’s authors write:

“Vitamin B12 deficiency is relatively common, especially among older adults; it has potentially serious medical complications if undiagnosed.

Left untreated, vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to dementia, neurologic damage, anemia, and other complications, which may be irreversible.”

Vitamin B12 deficiency is easy to rectify with supplements or by dietary changes.

Vitamin B12 levels can be boosted through supplementation or by eating foods such as dairy, liver, salmon and eggs.

Other good sources of vitamin B12 include poultry and low-fat milk.

Fortified breakfast cereals also contain vitamin B12.

The study was published in JAMA (Lam et al., 2013).

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