Vitamin E and Alzheimer's

Vitamin E may help you keep your wits about you as you get older. That's the conclusion of a new study from Sweden that looked at vitamin E levels in a group of 232 men and women all of whom were above the age of 80. Investigators measured blood levels of all eight components of natural vitamin E in each volunteer at the beginning of the study. None of the participants showed any sign of dementia at the time, but after six years, 57 of them had developed Alzheimer's. When the researchers checked vitamin E levels they found that those with the higher levels of all vitamin E components had a reduced risk of Alzheimer's compared to those with lower levels. Study leader Francesca Mangialasche, M.D., said that the protective effect seems to be related to the combination of the different forms of vitamin E and suggested that "the balanced presence of different vitamin E forms can have an important neuroprotective effect." The study was published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

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