The Natural Health Perspective managed to read through onlne in JAMA the full text of this entire research study.
The test subjects consisted of approximately 600 elderly American veterans (97% men) receiving care for their Alzheimer's disease in an at home setting.
This JAMA study found that 2,000 IU of alpha tocopherol a day was effective in slowing down the progression in mild to moderate forms of Alzheimer's disease. These test subjects were diagnosed to be probably suffering from Alzheimer's disease, but were being taken care of in an at home setting with some kind of a caregiver. In other words, not requiring nursing home care is what designates them as mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease patients.
This study did not perform any fancy monitoring of mental function. They simply talked about activities of daily living, such as showering, and monitored hours of caregiver care required by these Alzheimer's disease patients.
Vitamin E Slows Progression Of Alzheimer's Disease
This study did not find that vitamin E prevents or cures Alzheimer's disease. All the test subjects actually got worse over the period of the study. Vitamin E was found to simply slow the rate of mental decline in patients with mild Alzheimer’s.
Further, at 2,000 IU a day of alpha tocopherol no increased risk of death with vitamin E was noted.
In conclusion: the Natural Health Perspective would recommend supplementing with mixed natural forms of vitamin E. Starting out slow is always best. Vitamin E is a blood thinner. 2,000 IU of Vitamin E daily that was used in this research study is an extremely high dosage.
What is interesting about this study was that even the alpha tocopherol form of vitamin E was shown to be more effective than prescription medication. Supplementing with a mixed form of vitamin E could potentially provide better results.
All forms of antioxidant supplement therapy suffer from one serious defect, which minimizes their effectiveness. Antioxidants, like vitamin E, once used up by your body become pro-oxidants or promoters of oxidation. That is why if you plan to supplement with vitamin E then you should simultaneously be supplementing with astaxanthin; or with either the body's more natural Co-enzyme Q-10 (CoQ10) or the ubiquinol form of CoQ10, which are even more expensive. These super-antioxidants are capable of recycling spent vitamin E back into a safe therapeutic antioxidant form.
It is suggested that you start at 200 IU a day, taken with a meal that contains some fat since it is a fat-soluble vitamin and gradually increase dosages as high as you would like to go for the rest of your life. Of course, this course of action should be taken along with all our other health and vitamin supplement recommendations.
The Natural Health Perspective still maintains that if you are going take high dosages of any antioxidant then you should be concentrating on the super-antioxidant astaxanthin with dosages of vitamin E kept more modest, along with taking a variety of other antioxidants such as vitamin C and selenium.
Supplementing with Vitamin E is not the Natural Health Perspective wellness program's main defense against coming down with Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, everyone should be protected against developing age-related dementia to some extent as a byproduct of regularly supplementing with large amounts vitamin D.
Of course, if you happen to have a family member currently suffering from diagnosed Alzheimer's disease then giving them 2,000 IU a day of mixed natural vitamin E would probable be the way to go, in order to prolong their few remaining quality years of life.
