Clinical Study Title:
A pilot study of vitamins to lower plasma homocysteine levels in Alzheimer disease.

Plain English Summary:

This study examined the effect of a multivitamin use on the homocysteine levels of patients with Alzheimer's disease. A total of 69 participants were enrolled in the study. A multivitamin regime or a high dose of vitamins was given to patients over the course of 8 weeks. At follow-up all participants still in the study had reductions in the homocysteine levels of their blood. This suggests that certain nutritional alterations, such as supplementing diets with a multivitamin, for patients with Alzheimer's disease may help to keep their blood and plasma levels within the normal range and may reduce the risk of this disease. Vitamins E and C in combination provided the best prevention.

Authors

Aisen PS. Egelko S. Andrews H. Diaz-Arrastia R. Weiner M. DeCarli C. Jagust W. Miller JW. Green R. Bell K. Sano M.

Institution

Department of Neurology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA.

Country of Publication

United States

Source

American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 11(2):246-9, 2003 Mar-Apr