Recommended Reading

Vitamin C and E supplement use associated 
with reduced Alzheimer’s disease risk

The January 2004 issue of the AMA journal Archives of Neurology published findings obtained from the Cache County Study, which involved 4,470 older residents of Cache County, Utah, that the use of the antioxidant vitamins C and E together may protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease. 

Participants were queried about vitamin supplement use and assessed for dementia from 1996-1997, during which 200 cases of Alzheimer’s disease were identified. Reassessment from 1998-2000 identified 104 new cases. The researchers, led by assistant professor of the Department of Mental Health at John Hopkins Blomberg School of Public Health, Peter P. Zandi, PhD, found that taking both vitamin C and E as individual supplements was associated with a 78 percent reduction in the risk of having Alzheimer’s disease at the beginning of the study, and a 64 percent reduction in disease risk over the course of the study. However, taking either vitamin alone or taking both in the form of a multinutrient supplement was not associated with a reduced risk, although taking an individual vitamin E supplement in combination with a multinutrient supplement was protective. The authors of the study believe that the reason for these findings may be that individual supplements may contain up to 1,000 international units of vitamin E and 500 to 1,000 milligrams or more of vitamin C, while multinutrient supplements often contain only the recommended daily allowances of vitamins C and E.

Dr Zandi enthused, "These results are extremely exciting. Our study suggests that the regular use of vitamin E in nutritional supplement doses, especially in combination with vitamin C, may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease . . . Further study with randomized prevention trials is needed before drawing firm conclusions about the protective effects of these antioxidants. Such trials should consider testing a regimen of vitamin E and C in combination. If effective, the use of these antioxidant vitamins may offer an attractive strategy for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease."

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