The Vitamin E. Alzheimer's Connection

A T L A N T A, Feb. 5 -- Could Vitamin E hold back the progression of Alzheimer's disease? Early research indicates the vitamin may indeed play a role.

"We looked at the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease that can worsen over time," says Dr. Mary Sano of Columbia University. She found that in patients taking vitamin E, "these signs occurred later."

In fact, it delayed their entry into nursing homes and slowed their loss of ability to care for themselves.

The results of research have been very convincing — so much so that many Alzheimer's researchers now take vitamin E.

"I think if you polled a meeting of Alzheimer's disease researchers, as we've done, about half or better of the group is taking vitamin E themselves," says Dr. Ronald Petersen, head of the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. "There is some real hope here."

Researching the Connection

Petersen is spearheading an ambitious research project — a consortium of more than 60 research centers in the United States and Canada. They are testing to see if vitamin E can help stave off the onset of Alzheimer's. That research is expected to be completed within three years.

So what's the connection between vitamin E and Alzheimer's disease?

"The theory behind it is as an antioxidant," says Petersen. Vitamin E has long been recognized as an important antioxidant, one that assists in cleaning up oxidative damage to cells.

In Alzheimer's disease, a substance known as beta-amyloid is present in unusual amounts in the brain — and coincides with the appearance of corrosive placques. At the same time, free radicals — particles that do oxidative damage — are often produced. Scientists are uncertain about the exact connection between the placques, beta-amyloid and the free radicals. But the research seems to indicate vitamin E may play a role in cleaning up free radicals produced when beta-amyloid and its placques appear.

And in research done earlier on rats, beta-amyloid itself was reduced by vitamin E; so far, though, that particular effect has not been replicated in humans.