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Vitamin E 'could lengthen' lives of Alzheimer's patients

16/04/2008

People with Alzheimer's disease who take vitamin E may live longer than those with the disease who do not, new research suggests.

The study, presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 60th annual meeting in Chicago, found that people who took vitamin E, with or without an Alzheimer's drug (a cholinesterase inhibitor), were 26 per cent less likely to die than people who did not take vitamin E.

The researchers from Baylor College of Medicine studied 847 people with Alzheimer's disease for an average of five years.

About two-thirds of the participants took 1,000 international units of vitamin E twice a day along with a cholinesterase inhibitor.

Less than ten per cent of the group took vitamin E alone and about 15 per cent did not take the vitamin.

The scientists also found that vitamin E plus a cholinesterase inhibitor may be more beneficial than taking either agent alone and say more research is needed to determine the reason for this.

"Vitamin E has previously been shown to delay the progression of moderately severe Alzheimer's disease. Now, we've been able to show that vitamin E appears to increase the survival time of Alzheimer's patients as well," said study author Dr Valory Pavlik.

"This is particularly important because recent studies in heart disease patients have questioned whether vitamin E is beneficial for survival."