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High Dose Vitamin E Appears to Reduce Alzheimer's Risk: Presented at IADRD
By Peggy Peck
Special to DG News
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- July 24, 2002 -- An analysis of data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging suggests that vitamin E intake is associated with a statistically significant reduction in the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), researchers report.
A similar AD risk reduction was not seen with between vitamin C intake, however.
The results were reported here July 22 at the 8th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (IADRD).
Dr. Maria Corrada of Johns Hopkins University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, cautioned "in order to reach statistical significance both dietary and supplemental sources of vitamin E must be consumed." People with the highest quartile of vitamin E intake, 46.5 mg, had a 26 percent reduction in risk for developing AD.
Participants were volunteers in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), a multidisciplinary longitudinal study of normal aging. Seven-day records of dietary and antioxidant supplementation were collected over seven years. Dietary antioxidant intake was estimated from the US Dietary Association handbook on composition of foods. Total intake estimates combined these results with reported supplement use.
Dr. Corrada's team used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the relative risk (RR) and confidence intervals (CI) of AD with intake categorized into quartiles, using the lowest quartile as a reference.
The current study is based on analysis of the first available intake record from 579 BLSA participants aged 60 or older. Over an average of 9.3 years of follow-up, 57 subjects developed AD.
While subjects in the highest quartile of vitamin E intake had a significantly reduced risk of AD, the risk in the next quartile showed a statistical trend in the same direction. Dr. Corrada said she observed similar trends with vitamin C, but neither the trend nor any of the quartile RRs were statistically significant.
Based on the results, Dr. Corrada said clinicians should consider recommending a high antioxidant diet and vitamin E supplementation for elderly patients.
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