High Vitamin-E Dose Slows Decline in Alzheimer's Patients, Study Finds - Wall Street Journal

Dec. 31, 2013 4:02 p.m. ET

A high daily dose of vitamin E slowed functional decline in patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease by about six months, according to a new study.

However, the research to be published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, found no impact on memory and doctors said there was no evidence that vitamin E prevents the debilitating disease.

The study, which ran from 2007 to 2012, is one of the largest and longest studies in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and involved 613 patients at 14 Veterans Affairs medical centers who were already taking Alzheimer's drugs like Aricept. Researchers followed patients for an average of 2.3 years and found those receiving 2,000 international units of vitamin E daily showed less of a decline on a commonly used measure of daily functioning than patients in a placebo group.

Patients in the groups started out with a score of about 57 points on the scale, which measures activities of daily living. Those in the placebo group declined about 17 points on average, while the decline in the vitamin E group was about 14 points.

Though the benefit may seem small, lead researcher Maurice Dysken, a research scientist at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, said it could represent the difference between patients who can still dress or bathe independently and those who cannot. It also translates into about a six-month slowing in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The study also showed that caregiver time increased the least among the vitamin E group.

"I think it's very meaningful to patients and caregivers to preserve function," Dr. Dysken said.

Alzheimer's currently affects more than five million Americans. The progressive brain disorder leads to memory loss and eventually the ability to think and function.

Scott Small, an Alzheimer's expert at Columbia University in New York who wasn't involved in the research, said he might consider using vitamin E for some of his Alzheimer's patients. But he said healthy people worried about developing Alzheimer's should exercise and eat healthy foods rather than take supplements. Dr. Small said there is evidence that the part of the brain associated with age-related memory loss benefits from physical exercise.

A 1997 study of vitamin E in patients with more severe Alzheimer's disease had a similar outcome, finding that a high daily dose of 2,000 international units delayed disease progression.

But enthusiasm was blunted in 2005 after an analysis involving 19 vitamin E studies showed a higher death rate in people taking more than 400 international units per day of the supplement. Researchers in the current study looked at death rates and other safety measures in light of the earlier findings. Dr. Dysken said there wasn't an increase in mortality seen in the study related to vitamin E.

The study released Tuesday also included a group of patients who received memantine, another Alzheimer's drug sold by Forest Laboratories ^[1] Inc. FRX -0.02% ^[2] Forest Laboratories Inc.^[3] U.S.: NYSE ^$59.62 -0.01 -0.02% Jan. 3, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.06M AFTER HOURS ^$59.73 +0.11 +0.18% Jan. 3, 2014 4:48 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 18,252 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $16.06 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $552,816 12/27/13 Options Show Bullish Tilt on F...^[4] 12/02/13 Forest Labs to Cut 9% of Workf...^[5] 10/22/13 The Game Plan for New Forest L...^[6] More quote details and news »^[7] under the brand name Namenda, and a group that received both memantine and vitamin E. Neither of those groups showed statistically significant improvement compared with placebo. Dr. Dysken said it wasn't clear why the group receiving both memantine and vitamin E didn't do as well as the group on vitamin E alone.

Maria Carrillo, vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association, which wasn't involved in the study, called the results "encouraging" but said they should be replicated in future studies. "No one should take vitamin E for Alzheimer's except under the supervision of a physician," she said.

Write to Jennifer Corbett Dooren at jennifer.corbett-dooren@wsj.com ^[8]