Vitamin E Linked to Reduced Alzheimer's Risk

Vitamin E is different from many other vitamins in that there are eight different forms: four tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and four tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta). American diets tend to be highest in the gamma-tocopherol form of the vitamin, while supplements tend to focus on the alpha-tocopherol form of the vitamin. It is widely believed that the alpha-tocopherol is the most biologically active form and is therefore the form on which the most research has been conducted. But a new study may challenge that thinking.

A new study out of Sweden and Italy has found that all forms of vitamin E, not alpha-tocopherol only, may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.¹ This new population based study was conducted at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, and at the Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Perugia, Italy.

The study involved 232 male and female participants who were over the age of 80 at the beginning of the study and free of dementia. Blood samples were collected and analyzed for all eight forms of vitamin E at the beginning of the study and periodically throughout the six years of follow up. Over the course of the study, 57 cases of Alzheimer's Disease were identified.

When these findings were compared with vitamin E plasma (blood) levels, participants in the highest tertile of total tocopherols, total tocotrienols, and total vitamin E had a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease, in comparison to participants in the lowest tertile of the same plasma levels.

The researchers concluded that "high plasma levels of vitamin E are associated with a reduced risk of AD [Alzheimer's Disease] in advanced age. The neuroprotective effect of vitamin E seems to be related to the combination of different forms, rather than to alpha-tocopherol alone."

This may be why, as many experts have long suggested, studies that focus only on a single form of the vitamin yield mixed results.

Whole Health offers both mixed-tocopherol vitamin E and d-alpha-tocopherol. Learn more about Vitamin E and its various forms here.

1. Mangialasche, F., M. Kivipelto, et al. (2010). "High plasma levels of vitamin e forms and reduced Alzheimer's disease risk in advanced age." J Alzheimers Dis 20(4): 1029-37.