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Vitamin Supplements and High Intake of Carotenoids Do Not Lower Risk of Parkinson's Disease

Neither the intake of vitamins nor of carotenoids supplements appears to reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease.

Oxidative damage has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease and some limited, mostly retrospective epidemiological data have suggested that high vitamin E intake diets may or may not be associated with a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

Shumin Zhang, PhD, and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, prospectively examined the association between the risk of Parkinson's disease and dietary intakes of vitamin E, vitamin C, and carotenoids, and the use of vitamin supplements.

The investigators documented the occurrence of Parkinson's disease within two large cohorts of 47,331 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and 76,890 women in the Nurses' Health Study who completed detailed and validated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires. The women were followed for 14 years and the men for 12 years.

A total of 371 Parkinson's disease cases were identified. Neither the use of vitamin E, vitamin C or multivitamin supplements was significantly associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, the researchers found.

The risk of Parkinson's disease, however, was significantly reduced among men and women with high intake of dietary vitamin E from foods only, they reported. The pooled multivariate relative risk comparing individuals in the highest quintile with those in the lowest quintile was 0.68.

Consumption of nuts was also significantly associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease (RR, 0.57). However, intakes of dietary vitamin C and carotenoids was not significantly associated with risk of Parkinson's disease, they reported.

"Use of vitamin supplements and high intake of carotenoids do not appear to reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease," the researchers conclude. "The reduction in risk of Parkinson's disease associated with high dietary vitamin E intake suggests that other constituents of foods rich in vitamin E may be protective. Alternatively, moderate amounts of vitamin E may reduce risk of Parkinson's disease, but this benefit may be lost with higher intakes."
Neurology 2002; 59: 1161-1169. "Intakes of vitamins E and C, carotenoids, vitamin supplements, and PD risk."

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