Below is a brief summary of the audio content in this video. Watch the video above to see the graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes Dr. Greger references.
Autopsies have shown that excessive oxidative DNA damage is one of the pathways implicated in the development and deterioration of Alzheimer's brains. So why not try antioxidants? People with cognitive impairment or dementia tend to have lower levels of vitamin E in their bloodstream, but which came first? Maybe Alzheimer's leads to poor diet, not poor diet leads to Alzheimer's. While it's clear that getting more vitamin E from food is associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's, getting more vitamin E from supplements doesn't. But that hasn't stopped researchers from including a vitamin E arm in the largest primary prevention study on Alzheimer's disease to date.
The Alzheimer's Prevention Trial with Vitamin E and Selenium randomized more than 7,500 older men to take vitamin E, selenium, both, or neither, a placebo, for five years. To quote the conclusion, “Neither supplement prevented dementia.” A separate long-term trial of vitamin E supplementation in older people female Found similarly no Protection against cognitive decline. Vitamin E also did not appear to be beneficial in people with mild cognitive impairment. However, in trials on Alzheimer's patients themselves It's starting to get more and more interesting.
The first test was announced next. New England Journal of MedicineMore than 150 Alzheimer's patients were randomly assigned to vitamin E or a placebo to see if vitamin E could slow the progression of the disease. The primary outcome was the number of days until one of the following occurred: death, institutionalization, loss of the ability to perform basic activities of daily living, or progression to severe dementia with complete loss of sense of time or place. In the first analysis, vitamin E failed. It did not significantly slow the progression. When researchers dug deeper, they realized that despite the randomization, the placebo group had patients with milder disease by chance. After accounting for this, the difference in results between the vitamin E and placebo groups became quite large. Now, these kinds of unplanned post hoc analyses are widely criticized, but the effects were so great that they continued to be published. The adjusted time to death or loss of independence in the placebo group was 440 days. In the vitamin E group, however, it took 670 days after baseline cognitive normalization. That was more than seven months later. But given the unusual analysis, the scientific community waited for the study to be repeated.
And here it is. More than 600 patients with mild to severe Alzheimer's disease were randomly assigned to receive vitamin E supplements, the drug memantine, both, or neither (placebo only) for the next two years. After adjusting for multiple comparisons, there was no slowing of cognitive decline, but Function of In terms of managing activities of daily living, such as reducing, bathing and dressing, the vitamin E group showed about 1.5 years of functional deterioration over the 2-year period, resulting in about 2 hours less time needed from caregivers. everyday Compared to the drug group.
If those were the only two clinical vitamin E trials, I would seriously consider vitamin E for people with Alzheimer's disease. However, vitamin E harmful A study of cognition in some Alzheimer's patients. Clearly more research is needed.
In the next video, we'll cover other antioxidants that have already been tested, including vitamin C, beta-carotene, Centrum multivitamin, and minerals like zinc and calcium.
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