Vitamin E Associated With Lower Dementia Risk

(July 12, 2010) CHICAGO—Consuming more vitamin E through the diet appears to be associated with a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Oxidative stress—damage to the cells from oxygen exposure—is thought to play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, according to background information in the article. Experimental data suggest that antioxidants, nutrients that help repair this damage, may protect against the degeneration of nervous system cells. "Although clinical trials have shown no benefit of antioxidant supplements for Alzheimer's disease, the wider variety of antioxidants in food sources is not well studied relative to dementia risk; a few studies, with varying lengths of follow-up, have yielded inconsistent results," the authors write.

Elizabeth E. Devore, Sc.D., of Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues assessed 5,395 participants 55 years and older who did not have dementia between 1990 and 1993. Participants underwent a home interview and two clinical examinations at the beginning of the study, and provided dietary information through a two-step process involving a meal-based checklist and a food questionnaire.

The researchers focused on four antioxidants: vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene and flavonoids. The major food sources of vitamin E were margarine, sunflower oil, butter, cooking fat, soybean oil and mayonnaise; vitamin C came mainly from oranges, kiwi, grapefruit juice, grapefruit, cauliflower, red bell peppers and red cabbage; beta carotene, from carrots, spinach, vegetable soup, endive and tomato; and flavonoids from tea, onions, apples and carrots.

Over an average of 9.6 years of follow-up, 465 participants developed dementia; 365 of those were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After adjusting for other potentially related factors, the one-third of individuals who consumed the most vitamin E (a median or midpoint of 18.5 milligrams per day) were 25 percent less likely to develop dementia than the one-third of participants who consumed the least (a median of 9 milligrams per day). Dietary intake levels of vitamin C, beta carotene and flavonoids were not associated with dementia risk. Results were similar when only the participants diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were assessed.

"The brain is a site of high metabolic activity, which makes it vulnerable to oxidative damage, and slow accumulation of such damage over a lifetime may contribute to the development of dementia," the authors write. "In particular, when beta-amyloid (a hallmark of pathologic Alzheimer's disease) accumulates in the brain, an inflammatory response is likely evoked that produces nitric oxide radicals and downstream neurodegenerative effects. Vitamin E is a powerful fat-soluble antioxidant that may help to inhibit the pathogenesis of dementia."

Future studies are needed to evaluate dietary intake of antioxidants and dietary risks, including different points at which consuming more antioxidants might reduce risk, the authors conclude. (Arch Neurol. 2010;67[7]:819-825.)

 

High blood levels of vitamin E reduces risk of Alzheimer's

(July 5, 2010) High levels of several vitamin E components in the blood are associated with a decreased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in advanced age, suggesting that vitamin E may help prevent cognitive deterioration in elderly people. This is the conclusion reached in a Swedish study published in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Alzheimers Disease.

"Vitamin E is a family of eight natural components, but most studies related to Alzheimers disease investigate only one of these components, tocopherol", says Dr. Francesca Mangialasche, who led the study. "We hypothesized that all the vitamin E family members could be important in protecting against AD. If confirmed, this result has implications for both individuals and society, as 70 percent of all dementia cases in the general population occur in people over 75 years of age, and the study suggests a protective effect of vitamin E against AD in individuals aged 80+."

The study was conducted at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, in collaboration with the Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia, Italy. The study included a sample of 232 participants from the Kungsholmen Project, a population-based longitudinal study on aging and dementia in Stockholm (Kungsholmen parish). All participants were aged 80+ years and were dementia-free at the beginning of the study (baseline). After 6-years of follow-up, 57 AD cases were identified.

The blood levels of all eight natural vitamin E components were measured at the beginning of the study. Subjects with higher blood levels (highest tertile) were compared with subjects who had lower blood levels (lowest tertile) to verify whether these two groups developed dementia at different rates. The study found that subjects with higher blood levels of all the vitamin E family forms had a reduced risk of developing AD, compared to subjects with lower levels. After adjusting for various confounders, the risk was reduced by 45-54%, depending on the vitamin E component.

Dr Mangialasche notes that the protective effect of vitamin E seems to be related to the combination of the different forms. Another recent study indicated that supplements containing high doses of the E vitamin form tocopherol may increase mortality, emphasizing that such dietary supplements, if not used in a balanced way, may be more harmful than previously thought.

"Elderly people as a group are large consumers of vitamin E supplements, which usually contain only tocopherol, and this often at high doses", says Dr Mangialasche. "Our findings need to be confirmed by other studies, but they open up for the possibility that the balanced presence of different vitamin E forms can have an important neuroprotective effect."

Source: Francesca Mangialasche, Miia Kivipelto, Patrizia Mecocci, Debora Rizzuto, Katie Palmer, Bengt Winblad, Laura Fratiglioni: "High plasma levels of vitamin E forms and reduced Alzheimers disease risk in advanced age", Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (JAD), 5 July 2010, DOI: 10.3233/JAD-2010-091450

 

Study Finds Shark Cartilage Extract Does Not Improve Lung Cancer Survival

(June 17, 2010) An extract derived from shark cartilage—AE‑941—did not improve overall survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, according to a study jointly funded by NCCAM and the National Cancer Institute. Shark cartilage has been reported to have antiangiogenic properties (preventing the growth of new blood vessels around tumors), and preliminary research in animals suggested that AE‑491 has antitumor activity. Findings from this study were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Researchers throughout the United States and Canada, led by investigators from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, enrolled 379 patients with inoperable, stage III non-small cell lung cancer. All patients received standard radiation and chemotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either AE‑941 or a placebo twice daily during and after radiation and chemotherapy, with approximately half of the participants assigned to each group. Compared with placebo, AE‑941 resulted in no significant differences in overall survival, progression-free survival, time to progression, or tumor response rates. Patients who received radiation, chemotherapy, and placebo had a median overall survival of 15.6 months, while those who received radiation, chemotherapy, and AE‑941 had a median survival of 14.4 months. AE‑941 was found to be well-tolerated.

The researchers concluded that this study, like several smaller clinical trials of shark cartilage preparations in cancer patients, does not support the use of products derived from shark cartilage during cancer treatment.

Reference Lu C, Lee JJ, Komacki R, et al. Chemoradiotherapy with or without AE‑941 in stage III non-small cell lung cancer: a randomized phase III trial. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2010;102(12):1–7.

 

Vitamin and Calcium Supplements May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk

• Risk of breast cancer was reduced by 30 to 40 percent.

• Calcium works by enhancing DNA repair capacity.

• Effect of vitamins is long term and independent of DNA repair capacity.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 18, 2010) — Vitamins and calcium supplements appear to reduce the risk of breast cancer, according to findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 101st Annual Meeting 2010.

“It is not an immediate effect. You don’t take a vitamin today and your breast cancer risk is reduced tomorrow,” said Jaime Matta, Ph.D., professor in the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. “However, we did see a long-term effect in terms of breast cancer reduction.”

Matta said the findings suggest that the calcium supplements are acting to enhance DNA repair capacity, a complex biological process involving more than 200 proteins that, if disrupted, can lead to cancer. “This process involves at least five separate pathways and is critical for maintaining genomic stability,” said Matta. “When the DNA is not repaired, it leads to mutation that leads to cancer.”

The study included 268 women with breast cancer and 457 healthy controls. Women were more likely to have breast cancer if they were older, had a family history of breast cancer, had no history of breastfeeding and had lower DNA repair capacity.

Vitamin supplements appeared to reduce the risk of breast cancer by about 30 percent.

Calcium supplements reduced the risk of breast cancer by 40 percent. After controlling for the level of DNA repair capacity, calcium supplements were no longer as protective, but the link between vitamin supplements and breast cancer reduction remained.

“We’re not talking about mega doses of these vitamins and calcium supplements, so this is definitely one way to reduce risk,” said Matta.

 

Governor Signs Idaho Health Freedom Act

(March 17, 2010) – Hailing it as a reflection of public dismay with Washington, and a clear expression of state sovereignty, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter welcomed legislative sponsors to his office at the Capitol today for the signing of House Bill 391, the Idaho Health Freedom Act.

“Congress and the White House are working out their scheme for pushing through a healthcare ‘reform’ bill that has more pages than the U.S. Constitution has words. I guarantee you that not a single member of the House or Senate has a complete understanding of that legislation any more than they understood all the implications of the USA PATRIOT Act back in 2001,” Otter said. “What the Idaho Health Freedom Act says is that the citizens of our state won’t be subject to another federal mandate or turn over another part of their life to government control.”

The legislative cosponsors of House Bill 391 – Representatives Jim Clark of Hayden Lake, Raul Labrador of Eagle and Lynn Luker Boise, along with Senator Monty Pearce of New Plymouth – joined the Governor at the signing ceremony.

The Idaho Health Freedom Act also takes into account the work that Idaho already is doing on its own to promote greater accessibility and affordability to healthcare for all Idahoans. That involves working closely to create and nurture public-private partnerships to develop primary care medical homes throughout Idaho, expand medical residency programs, expand the safe and secure electronic exchange of health information, and improve the voluntary enrollment of Medicaid-eligible children.

Gov. Otter said it is a different approach to government than some people are used to, but one that respects the source of government authority and resources and understands the limited but crucial role that government should play in people’s lives.

“From addressing the ‘tax gap’ to managing our aquifers, from increasing the potential for charitable giving to reorganizing management of our State parks system, and from our insistence on maintaining a stable and predictable tax structure to our continuing efforts to find savings throughout State government, this has been a productive legislative session,” he said. “We have kept our priorities where they belong – on finding better, more efficient and effective ways to serve the individuals, families and communities with whose tax dollars we are entrusted.”

 

Study: Meditation Improves Cognition in Those With Memory Loss

(February 24, 2010) The Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation today announced data demonstrating that a specific meditation performed daily for eight weeks increased brain activity in areas central to memory and actually improved cognition in patients suffering from memory problems. The results of the study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, were published in an early online version of an article scheduled to appear in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Volume 20:2, DOI 10.3233/JAD-2010-1391).

The risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rises dramatically as people age and, as the ranks of our nation’s elderly swell, the number of people facing this disease will devastate our already overburdened healthcare system. Slowing the progression of AD by five or ten years would lessen this burden dramatically, but few options to slow, or perhaps even prevent memory loss exist.

“While meditation is already practiced by millions, this is the first study to investigate its potential to reverse memory loss in patients with cognitive impairment,” said Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., the founding president and medical director of the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation, a meditation expert and study co-author.

Kirtan Kriya (KK), the meditation evaluated in the study, is a 12-minute practice from the Kundalini yoga tradition. “These results confirm what we have long observed in clinical practice, that this brief, simple meditation can have a meaningful impact on memory and on the quality of people’s lives as they age.” The frontal lobe of the brain, which became more active as a result of meditation in the study, aids in attention and concentration and has been shown to be affected in patients with dementia disorders. The frontal lobe and the parietal lobe, another part of the brain positively affected in the study, are both parts of the brain which are involved in retrieving memories.

“It would be extremely useful to have a cost-effective, non-pharmacological approach to slowing memory loss that could bolster the effect of medications without fear of side effects or drug-drug interactions,” said Andrew Newberg, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and study co-author. “While further study into the impact of Kirtan Kriya is required, the pilot study demonstrates that this meditation could be a very important tool in slowing cognitive decline.”

About the Study

Fifteen subjects with memory problems, ranging in age from 52 to 77 years, were enrolled in this open-label pilot study. At the start of the study, cognitive tests, as well as images of the brain measuring cerebral blood follow (CBF), were taken for each subject using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) scans. Subjects were taught KK and instructed to practice it each day for eight weeks. While this was an open-label study, a small comparison group (n=5) was also recruited in which the meditation was replaced with a music listening task. The “music group” was instructed to listen to two Mozart violin concertos each day for approximately 12 minutes. Subjects kept a daily log of their study activity and were contacted at four weeks with a reminder to continue the practice.

After eight weeks, cognitive tests and SPECT scans were repeated for both groups and researchers compared pre-program with post-program results. The study found that: CBF was increased in the KK group in the frontal lobe regions and the right superior parietal lobe In contrast, a non-significant increase in CBF was seen in the music group in the amygdala and precuneus areas of the brain The KK group had statistically significant improvements in a neuropsychological test which measures cognition by asking subjects to name as many animals as they can in one minute Improvements were also seen in the KK group in three other cognitive tests that measured general memory, attention and cognition There were no statistically significant improvements in cognition in the music group Participants found the meditation to be enjoyable and beneficial and perceived their cognitive function to be improved

About the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation

The Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation (ARPF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the incidence of Alzheimer's disease by conducting clinical research and providing educational outreach about the lifestyle changes that can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.