Nutrition Stop - General Health - Antioxidants Help Prevent Alzheimer's

Antioxidants Help Prevent Alzheimer's

A diet rich in antioxidants may help protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to results of the Rotterdam Study involving 5,395 people aged 55 and older. In 1990, researchers determined the participants' intakes of beta-carotene, flavonoids, vitamin C and vitamin E. During the next 10 years, participants were screened for Alzheimer's disease; a neurologist, neuropsychologist and magnetic brain imaging confirmed the condition in 146 of the subjects. Compared with participants whose diets provided fewer antioxidants, those with greater vitamin C intake cut their Alzheimer's risk nearly 30 percent; those with greater vitamin E intake by up to 43 percent. Smokers experienced the greatest risk reduction from antioxidants. Smokers, unlike the overall study population, also reduced their Alzheimer's risk when they consumed more beta-carotene and flavonoids. Maryanne Engelhart, M.D., director of this population-based prospective cohort study, suggests that by decreasing excess oxidation in the brain, antioxidants may prevent the DNA damage, neuron cell death and build-up of the brain-clogging substance beta-amyloid that typify Alzheimer's disease.