Alzheimer’s news: Cocktail of nutrients helps Alzheimer's patients

By David Liu

The FDA which believe only FDA-approved medications can be use to prevent or treat any disease may not agree on this, but a study in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia proved that cheap dietary supplements may be as effective as drugs in treating Alzheimer's disease.

The study led by MIT researchers demonstrated that a nutrition beverage of three key ingredients found in human milk, B vitamins, phospholipids and antioxidants improved verbal memory in patients with early-stage Alzheimer's.

The early symptoms patients with Alzheimer's disease suffer include a major loss of the brain connections called synapses required for memory and information processing.  The study showed that the nutrients promoted growth of synapses and improved verbal memory particularly in patients with early forms of the disease.

Richard Wurtman and colleagues conducted a trial of 225 Alzheimer's patients to examine the therapeutic effect of a cocktail of choline, uridine, one omega-3 fatty acid called Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found in breast milk plus other nutrients.

In the 12-week study, some patients were given a nutrient drink called Souvenaid and others a placebo. More patients on the nutritional beverage improved their performance on the verbal memory test than those given the placebo, 40 percent versus 24 percent, the researchers found.

Additionally, Wurtman found patients with the mildest cases of Alzheimer's were the ones who benefited most from the mixed drink.

The study was sponsored by the French company Danone. Together with the company, MIT has patented the findings and the company has the exclusive right to the patent.

Carlezon WA and colleagues from Harvard medical School reported in Feb 2005 in the Biological Psychiatry that uridine and omega-3 fatty acids each has antidepressant-like effects in rats and work as well as antidepressant medications such as Prozac and other SSRIs.

Uridine is found high in many foods including tomatoes, brewer's yeast, and beer.

Choline, a vitamin, plays many roles in human physiology including structural integrity of cell membranes, cell signaling, nerve impulse transmission, lipid fat transport and metabolism among other things, according to Linus Pauling Institute.

This vitamin has been known to have preventative and therapeutic effects against a series of diseases including heart disease, cancer, cognitive functioning or memory loss and dementia like Alzheimer's disease.

However, the cocktail of nutrients did not seem to improve scores in patients with early forms of Alzheimer's disease on the ADAS-cog test, which determines a person's orientation and movement/spatial memory as well as cognition.

There is no Alzheimer’s cure and the disease affects millions of elderly people in the United States.   Some Alzheimer’s medications may help patients though.  The disease eventually disables the patients and leads to death.