Lee Swanson Research Update

Long-term Beta-carotene Use May Protect Against Dementia

January 2008

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that taking beta-carotene supplements for 15 years or more may lessen the decline in thinking ability that comes with Alzheimer's disease.

The idea that antioxidants such as beta-carotene can help protect against Alzheimer's disease is not new. The latest trial, which started as the Physicians Health Study II, stretches back to 1982. That year, 4,052 men were assigned to take daily doses of either 50 mg of beta-carotene-the amount in about five large carrots-or a placebo every other day. An additional 1,904 men were randomly assigned to one of the two groups between 1998 and 2001.

The men filled out yearly questionnaires about their health and compliance with the regimen, and all had telephone assessments of their thinking ability at least once between 1998 and 2002. A difference emerged between long-term and short-term participants. The men who had stayed in the trial for an average of 18 years scored significantly higher on most of the tests of cognitive ability. "Their memory was equivalent to that of men about a year younger," said study lead author Francine Grodstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

What works for men almost certainly should work for women, she said, and the idea that long-term use of an intervention is important should be applied to other preventive measures against Alzheimer's disease. "Our research supports the possibility of successful interventions at early stages of brain aging in healthy adults," Grodstein said.

Archives of Internal Medicine167(20):2184-2190, 2007

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