Oxidative stress from free radicals is one of the pathways implicated in the development

and deterioration of Alzheimer's brains, given the evidence of excess oxidative DNA damage

on autopsy. So what about trying an antioxidant?

Vitamin E levels tend to be lower in the bloodstreams of those with cognitive impairment or

dementia, but which came first.

Maybe Alzheimer's disease led to poor eating, rather than poor eating, leading to Alzheimer's disease.

Greater vitamin E intake from foods is clearly associated with the lower risk of developing Alzheimer's,

but greater vitamin E intake from supplements is not.

But that didn't stop researchers from including a vitamin E arm

in the largest primary prevention study of Alzheimer's disease to date.

The prevention of Alzheimer's disease by vitamin E and selenium trial

randomized more than 7,500 older men to take vitamin E, selenium, both or neither,

just placebo, for five years.

To quote from the conclusion,

neither supplement prevented dementia.

A separate long-term vitamin E supplementation trial of older women similarly found no protection against cognitive decline.

Neither did vitamin E appear to benefit those with mild cognitive impairment,

but the trials on Alzheimer's patients themselves started

to get more interesting.

The first trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, randomized more than

150 Alzheimer's patients to vitamin E or placebo, to see if vitamin E could slow the progression

of the disease.

...