High levels of several vitamin E components in the blood decrease risks for Alzheimer's disease in advanced age, and also, vitamin E may help prevent cognitive deterioration in elderly people, says a Swedish study conducted at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. The work can be significant to the 70% of dementia cases suffered by people over 75, and effects of vitamin E can so much as benefit individuals over 80 years of age.

Published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, the studies were led by Dr. Francesca Mangialasche, who noted that Vitamin E is a family of eight natural components, but most Alzheimer's disease studies investigate only one. After discovering that subjects with higher blood levels of all vitamin E family forms had reduced risk of developing AD, compared to subjects with lower levels, her project theorized that all the vitamin E family members could be important.

"Elderly people as a group are large consumers of vitamin E supplements," explained Dr. Mangialasche, who added that her findings "open up for the possibility that the balanced presence of different vitamin E forms can have an important neuroprotective effect."

The study was conducted at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, in collaboration with the Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, at the University of Perugia, in Italy. The study included a sample of 232 participants, who were all over 80 and free of dementia at the start.