Last month national headlines read, “Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.” Those writers should have waited a few weeks. Their claim was obviously biased and demonstrates their ignorance or blind self-interest. This month’s headlines, ”Vitamin E Slows Alzheimer’s Progression,” confirms once more that vitamins do work and often work better than drugs.
This new study published January 1, 2014, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that Vitamin E significantly slows Alzheimer’s Disease progression and decreases its death rate by 18% compared to placebo and 36% compared to the drug Namenda ® (Memantine).”
This is great news! It confirms what I was trying to say last month in my article that much of the research and reporting of the research on Vitamins is strongly biased. Anyone who objectively looks at the research could only conclude that the preponderance of evidence shows that multivitamins significantly reduce the risk of disease, increase health and extend longevity.
Dr. Maurice Dysken, of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, who is the lead author of the new study, said “We found vitamin E significantly slowed the rate of progression versus placebo.”
This is the first time any treatment has been shown to alter the course of dementia at that stage. “It’s not a miracle or, obviously, a cure,” said Dr. Dysken. “The best we can do at this point is slow down the rate of progression.”
It is the best that they can do once a patient’s dementia is severe enough to be diagnosed as “mild to moderate Alzheimer’s Disease.” The authors of the study should be asking the next obvious question, “What if we gave Vitamin E at this dose earlier? What if we gave it in combination with Selenium, its essential mineral cofactor? What if we used the all-natural, more effective form of Vitamin E known as d-alpha tocopherol rather than the synthetic form?
“This is truly a breakthrough paper and constitutes what we have been working toward for nearly three decades: the first truly disease-modifying intervention for Alzheimer’s,” said Dr. Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “I am very enthusiastic about the results.” And the results might have been even more dramatic if the study had included Selenium plus the all-natural Vitamin E.
Currently there is no drug treatment that will delay, prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease, or that affects the underlying disease process. It’s a tragic, frustrating disease that takes away the very things that make us who we are: memory and personality. About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer’s is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.
“Available prescription medications are only modestly effective in slowing functional decline and delaying the need for institutionalization. They are expensive, they don’t help everyone, and when they do help, they only help for a limited time. It is very exciting to think an inexpensive vitamin could help patients with mild to moderate AD, but we must resist the temptation to read too much into this study,” says Harriet Hall, MD, Editor of “Science-Based Medicine.”
The new study involved 561 patients at 14 VA medical centers with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Researchers split the group into four equal groups, with each receiving a different therapy.
One-fourth received a daily dose of 2,000 international units (IU) of dl-alpha tocopherol, a synthetic form of Vitamin E. That’s a relatively large dose; by comparison, a daily multivitamin contains only about 100 IUs of vitamin E, Dysken said.
The other sets of patients were given the Alzheimer’s medication Memantine, a combination of Vitamin E and Memantine, or a placebo.
Patients who took Vitamin E alone experienced a 19 percent reduction in their annual rate of decline compared to a placebo during the study’s average 2.3 years of follow-up, the researchers said.
In practical terms, this means the vitamin E group enjoyed a more than six-month delay in the progression of Alzheimer’s, the researchers said.
This delay could mean a lot to patients, the researchers said, noting that the decline experienced by the placebo group could translate into the complete loss of the ability to dress or bathe independently.
The researchers also found that people in the Vitamin E group needed about 2 fewer hours of care each day, which can be a major benefit for family members.
The daily high dose of Vitamin E appears to be safe, with no increased risk of illness or death, according to the researchers. They reported that the annual death rate in the Vitamin E group was only 7.3 percent compared to 9 percent for the Vitamin E plus Memantine group, 9.4 percent for the placebo group and 11.3% for the group taking the drug Memantine.
That translates into a 18% reduced rate of death in the Vitamin E group compared to placebo and a 36% reduced rate of death in the Vitamin E group compared to the group taking the drug Memantine.
Researchers don’t know how vitamin E might help, but it is an antioxidant, like those found in red wine, grapes and some teas. Antioxidants help protect cells from damage that can contribute to other diseases, says the federal Office on Dietary Supplements. Many foods contain vitamin E, such as nuts, seeds, grains, leafy greens and vegetable oils.
This study used –— dl-alpha-tocopherol — the synthetic version Vitamin E. Most studies have shown that synthetic vitamin E is only half as active in the body as the natural form. As it relates to last month’s flawed study claiming that vitamin E does not prevent heart attack, the 60 IU of synthetic dl-alpha tocopherol given every day equates to only 30 IU a day of the natural form. I would not expect 30 IU of natural vitamin E a day by itself to reduce vascular disease risk. Most studies simply use too little Vitamin E. This new study finally got it right and used a much higher dose and got significant positive results, indicating that in previous studies that failed to show positive results may have simply used an insufficient dose of Vitamin E.
Note: When checking vitamin labels, natural vitamin E is usually stated as the “d” form (for example d-alpha tocopheryl acetate, d-alpha tocopherol, and d-alpha tocopheryl succinate).
Synthetic vitamin E will have an “L” after the “D” (for example, dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate, dl-alpha tocopheryl succinate, dl-alpha tocopherol). Remember “dl” signifies synthetic vitamin E, whereas “d” signifies natural vitamin E. Remember that natural d-alpha tocopherol (d-alpha tocopheryl succinate or acetate) is equal to about 1.5-2.0 times more antioxidant activity than the synthetic dl-tocopherol (dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate or succinate).
Years ago, another study found that the same form and dose helped people with more advanced Alzheimer’s, and many were prescribed it. But vitamin E fell out of favor after a 2005 analysis of many studies found that those taking more than 400 units a day were more likely to die of any cause. Most of those studies used the synthetic dl-alpha version of Vitamin E and that may explain the unpredicted increased incidence of death. The synthetic version can and does cause side-effects. Nature is still wiser than man.
Perhaps the negative studies of the past were conducted by doctors with too little faith in nature using Vitamin doses that were too low, and/or synthetic vitamin copies that were ineffective and toxic, thus producing negative or insignificant results.
This new study found that a daily dose of 2000 IU of Vitamin E in the form of dl-alpha tocopherol extended life expectancy by 18% compared to placebo, and by 36% compared to the drug Memantine.
Additionally, this daily high dose of Vitamin E slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by 19 %, delaying the decline in daily living skills, such as making meals, getting dressed and holding a conversation, by about six months over a two-year period.
The benefit was equivalent to keeping one major skill that otherwise would have been lost, such as being able to bathe without help. For some people, that could mean living independently rather than needing a nursing home. Those taking vitamin E alone also required less help from caregivers — about two fewer hours each day than others in the study.
Natural Vitamin E should be the first line of therapy for anyone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It should be the dl-alpha form or better yet also include a mix of all the natural alpha, beta, gamma, and other tocoopherols, combined with Selenium and other antioxidant vitamins as well as healthy foods that contain vitamin E, such as nuts, seeds, grains, leafy greens and healthy vegetable oils.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a degenerative brain disorder associated with progressive deterioration of memory and cognitive function. In North America, AD occurs in about 20% of individuals in the 75–84 years group and 42% people older than 84 years old. These numbers are striking when compared to data from the 1960s indicating that it occurred in only 2% in population over the age of 85 years. The tremendous increase in Alzheimer’s Disease in people over 85 years of age is most likely due to the tremendous increase of chemicals and stress of the 21 Century that cause significantly increased levels of oxidative damage to the nervous system. This study shows that Alzheimer’s Disease can be slowed down and possibly reversed by high doses of supplemental antioxidants.