Vit. E May Slow Cognitive Decline

Vitamin E, along with drugs that reduce inflammation, may slow the decline of mental and physical abilities in Alzheimer’s patients, according to an analysis sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The report reviewed 540 patients treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital Memory Disorders Unit for Alzheimer’s disease. All patients studied received standard treatment, while 208 patients took vitamin E with no anti-inflammatory drug, 49 took the anti-inflammatory with no vitamin E, 177 took both the anti-inflammatory and vitamin E, and 106 took neither.After an average of three years, a modest slowing of decline was shown in patients that took only vitamin E and in those patients that took only the anti-inflammatory medication. However, there appeared to be an additive effect in terms of slowing overall decline in the patients that took both the vitamin E and the anti-inflammatory.The findings will be reported at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society in Chicago.