Natural Help for Mild Cognitive Impairment

In Vol 17, No 10 of The Natural Path, we featured a newly recognized condition called Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Seniors with MCI may have trouble with memory and thinking that is not serious enough to cause the real problems of Alzheimer’s Disease.

In that article, we described the research that shows that drugs offer no benefit to the 42% of seniors that are affected by MCI but that natural remedies do. The natural remedies that have been shown to work are the combination of B6, B12 and folic acid and the great memory herb Ginkgo biloba.

But there are several other natural aids for MCI. . . . 

Dark Chocolate
A double-blind study gave 90 people with MCI a chocolate drink containing 900mg of flavanols (high flavanol), 520mg of flavanoids (intermediate flavanol) or 45mg of flavanols (low flavanol) for 8 weeks.

On two tests of cognition, the high flavanol and intermediate flavanol groups improved significantly, while the low flavanol group did not. Composite cognitive scores improved in the high and intermediate flavanol groups but not the low flavanol group.

The researchers concluded that flavanols found in dark chocolate benefit people with MCI, especially processing speed, executive function, language and working memory.

So add dark chocolate to the vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid and the herb Ginkgo biloba for the mild cognitive impairment that is so common in old age (Hypertension 2012;60:794-801).

Green Tea
A large study of 732 people over the age of sixty found that drinking green tea is associated with less dementia and mild cognitive impairment. The study found that drinking green tea every day is associated with a 74% decrease in the risk of dementia and a 68% decrease in the risk of mild cognitive impairment compared to not drinking green tea (PLoS One2014;9:e96013.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096013).

A second study gave 2 grams of green tea leaf powder a day to 12 people with Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia or mild cognitive impairment for three months. The green tea was standardized for 227mg of catechins and 42mg of theanine. That amount of green tea supplement is equal to drinking about two to four cups of green tea a day. The green tea significantly improved total dementia scores and short term memory scores (Nutrients 2014;6:4032-42).

Blueberries
A small single-blind study of older adults with mild cognitive impairment found that blueberry juice (providing 428-598mg of anthocyanins) significantly improved memory and learning scores (J Agric Food Chem 2010;58:3996-4000).

One interesting feature of these studies is that Ginkgo, dark chocolate, green tea and blueberries all contain related anthocyanin or proanthocyanidin flavonoids.