Your chances of becoming forgetful-or suffering dementia-as you get older are dramatically reduced if you take plenty of vitamin C and beta-carotene when you’re younger. The other ‘power vitamins’ for mental sharpness are vitamin E, lycopene and coenzyme Q10, researchers have discovered.
Alzheimer’s patients are low in all these vitamins, especially vitamin C and beta-carotene, compared with healthy people who have stayed mentally sharp.
Researchers at the University of Ulm, Germany, reckon the vitamins can also protect against the milder symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia, including forgetfulness, orientation problems and general cognitive decline.
They made the discovery when they did a blood analysis of 74 Alzheimer’s patients and compared the results against those of 158 matching but healthy people.
The researchers also took into account other factors that can also affect mental ability like education, alcohol intake, smoking and being overweight, but vitamin deficiency remained a major cause.
J Alzheimers Dis, 2012; 31: 717-24
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