Lee Swanson Research Update

Memory Loss in Diabetics May Be Reduced by Vitamins C and E 

June 2008

Supplementing with vitamins C and E may reduce memory loss in type 2 diabetics, a population at risk of increased impaired memory.

Daily doses of 1,000 mg of vitamin C and 800 IU of vitamin E improved mental function after carbohydrate-rich meals and may protect against memory loss, according to a small study with 16 diabetics published in the journal Nutrition Research.

“Results from this study suggest that postprandial (after eating) oxidative stress is a potential contributor because deficits in [cognitive performance] after test meal consumption could be minimized by co-consumption of the test meal with high doses of antioxidant vitamins," wrote Michael Chui and Carol Greenwood from the University of Toronto.

According to Chui and Greenwood: “Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with chronic oxidative stress, a major contributor to cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Meal ingestion can induce acute elevations of free radicals, with higher susceptibility observed in patients with type 2 diabetes compared with healthy individuals."

The Toronto-based researchers recruited 16 type 2 diabetics with an average age of 63.5 and fed them a high-fat meal (50.4 g fat, 63 g carbohydrate and 25.4 g protein), the same meal with the added vitamins, or just water. The meals were fed on three separate occasions and none of the subjects were regular consumers of high-dose antioxidant supplements.

The results of a battery of cognitive tests showed that consumption of the high-fat meal produced poor performance in verbal recall and working memory, compared to water consumption.

Consumption of antioxidant vitamins lessened the detrimental effects of the high-fat meal and cognitive performance was "indistinguishable from that after water intake," wrote Chui and Greenwood.

Nutrition Research 28(7):423-429, 2008

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