Study indicates nutrients may help memory

Posted by admin

August 5, 2012

There are currently no good medications available to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease, but recent studies on dietary interventions to help improve cognition offer significant hope for people suffering from dementia.

Several years ago, Dr. Richard Wurtman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a mixture of three nutrients that seemed to improve memory in rodents by enhancing the connections of neurons in the brain. These nutrients are DHA, choline, and uridine. DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid found in fatty fish and walnuts, and is the most abundant fatty acid in the brain. Choline is a nutrient that is part of the B vitamin family and is found in eggs, nuts and meats. Uridine is a protein molecule that is harder to obtain from foods, but can be found in sugar beets and broccoli.

In 2008, a proprietary blend of these nutrients known as Souvenaid was tested in a group of 225 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease in Europe. Dr. Philip Scheltens, director of the Alzheimer Center at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, led this study, which showed that 40 percent of people taking the Souvenaid beverage every day for three months showed an improvement in verbal memory, compared to only 24 percent of people who drank a placebo beverage.

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