Far from being a ‘killer’, as a recent study has claimed, vitamin E can slow the progress of moderate Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found.
The alpha-tocepherol, fat-soluble formulation of the vitamin can help the Alzheimer’s victim carry on with the simple day-to-day routine activities such as shopping, preparing meals, planning and travelling.
Taking vitamin E daily slows functional decline in the Alzheimer’s patient by 19 per cent, which translates into six months of symptom-free living, say researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. This is great news for the patient, close family members and carers.
The researchers gave 613 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s a daily 1200 IU vitamin E supplement, or an Alzheimer’s drug or a placebo, or sugar pill, and found the supplement outperformed them all, and was 19 per cent more effective than the placebo.
Earlier studies by the same group found that vitamin E had similar benefits even among people with severe Alzheimer’s.
(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2014; 311: 33).
