Dementia patients can use high doses of vitamin E safely

Dementia patients CAN take 2,000 IU per day safely, according to a new study published in 2009 in Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.

Previous studies have shown that vitamin E at a dose of 2,000 IU per day may delay Alzheimer's disease progression, but some studies also suggest the mega-dose may not be safe while its efficacy remain uncertain.

Alzheimer's disease is a major form of dementia.

Pavlik V.N and colleagues from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in Texas analysed data from 849 probable or mixed Alzheimer's disease patients who were followed between 1990 and Dec, 2004.

All the patients were told to take 1,000 IU of vitamin E twice a day during the study period.  The researchers assessed the association of vitamin E lone or in combination with a drug called cholineseterase inhibitor (ChEI) with all-cause mortality.

Compared to patients who did not use vitamin E, those who used the nutrient with or without a ChEI were 23 percent less likely to die.  Those who used ChEI alone were at 20 percent higher risk of death.

The researchers said high doses of vitamin E are safe to take for patients with dementia like Alzheimer's disease.

Early this month, one study reported in Archives of Neurology suggest that dietary vitamin E may help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The study found those who had the highest intake of dietary vitamin E were 25 percent less likely to develop dementia over 9.6 years of follow-up.

However some studies suggest vitamin E supplements can be harmful.

Dr. Francesca Mangialasche at the Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and at the Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia in Italy reported in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease that taking only one vitamin E such as tocopherol can increase risk of death.

The authors cited a study saying that people who had high all forms of vitamin E were 45 to 54 percent less likely to have Alzheimer's disease.  But vitamin E supplements were found apparently more harmful than ever thought.

They found the association after following 232 men and women aged 80 and older and dementia free at baseline for a 6-year period.

Dementia is not a disease, but a term used to describe a collection of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders that affect the brain, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

By David Liu