CAN TAKING ANTIOXIDANTS REALLY PREVENT ALZHEIMER DISEASE?
(May 2003) Two articles in the June 26, 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association suggest the answer is yes. One is from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the other was conducted in the United States. The Rotterdam investigators followed 5,363 men and women, average age 68 years, for six years; the Chicago Health and Aging Project studied 815 men and women, age 65 years and older, over a seven-year period. Their conclusions were: Rotterdam: “high dietary intake of vitamin C and vitamin E may lower the risk of Alzheimer disease”. Chicago: “this study suggests that vitamin E from food, but not other antioxidants, may be associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer Disease”. In the Rotterdam study, in the highest vitamin C and vitamin E intake groups, the risk of developing Alzheimer s was reduced by 34 to 43 percent. In the Chicago study, it was 64 percent reduction for vitamin E from foods, but no reduction for vitamin E from supplements.
