For many individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, there are few if any natural solutions readily available. However, a new study actually showed a link between Vitamin E and Alzheimer’s Disease, and that high doses of vitamin E can delay the decline in daily living skills. For example, getting dressed, bathing, eating, and maintaining a conversation.
According to this new discovery sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, high dose vitamin E was tested on more than 600 older veterans with Alzheimer’s disease. As the veterans went about their daily lives, researchers noticed they required less assistance from caregivers, a whole two hours. As Dr. Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York puts it, “This is truly a breakthrough paper and constitutes what we have been working toward for nearly three decades.”
As many experts wonder if vitamins are truly the answer to Alzheimer’s disease, the numbers of individuals afflicted are not slowing down. In fact, more than 5 million people in the United States live with the disease. Even though researchers don’t know the logistics as to why vitamin E helps, its role as an antioxidant is undeniable. Antioxidants prevent oxidative stress, which means they protect against cell damage, a commonality found in many age-related diseases. More than one form of vitamin E exists, but the researchers in the study used a pharmaceutical grade dose of alpha-tocopherol at a strength of 2,000 international units a day. For an even more protection, consider taking a mixed tocopherol and tocotrienol vitamin E supplement, which contains alpha, beta, gamma, and delta forms. These forms, some of which need more research, have shown powerful free radical fighting potential.
Even though participants only experienced a 19 percent lower annual rate of decline in daily living skills, the Memantine group – a popular dementia medicine – showed zero improvement. However subtle the endpoint, it shows vitamins have the potential to benefit chronic brain disease in ways drugs cannot, and it opens the floodgates for future vitamin related studies to take place.