(10-10-12) Vitamin C and beta-carotene help protect against Alzheimer's dementia

by John Phillip

(NaturalNews) Alzheimer's dementia strikes fear in millions of aging
individuals, as this memory robbing disease strikes one in eight older
Americans and more than half over the age of 80. Pharmaceutical companies have
lined up in an attempt to find a synthetic pill that will prevent or treat this
condition. Despite spending billions of dollars on research, all attempts have
proven fruitless in a desperate attempt to profit from the suffering of
millions around the globe. Yet the true key to prevention may be in the bounty
of natural fruits and vegetables so deficient in the typical western diet.

Critical support for the importance of a natural diet packed with antioxidant
vitamins and nutrients comes from a group of researchers at the University of
Ulm in Germany that has been published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. A
research team headed by Dr. Christine von Arnim has discovered that the serum-
concentration of the antioxidants vitamin C and beta-carotene are significantly
lower in patients with mild dementia than in control persons.

This finding means that it is possible to influence the pathogenesis of
Alzheimer's disease by bolstering a person's diet with healthy foods and
dietary antioxidants. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by significant
changes in brain chemistry that alter electrical and chemical transmissions
that affect learning, memory and cognition.

Vitamin C and beta-carotene help clear dangerous protein accumulations in the
brain
Forward-thinking scientists believe that oxidative stress from external
pollutants, household chemicals and hybridized foods over the course of decades
leads to this fatal form of dementia. To further examine the effect of
antioxidants from foods and supplemental forms on progression of the disease,
researchers developed a cohort of 74 Alzheimer's patients and 158 healthy
control participants.

The participants, aged between 65 and 90 years, underwent neuropsychological
testing and answered questions regarding their lifestyle. Additionally, their
blood was examined for levels of key antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-
carotene, lycopene and coenzyme Q10) and BMI was calculated. Researchers found
that concentrations of vitamin C and beta-carotene in the serum of Alzheimer's
patients were significantly lower than in the blood of control subjects. No
difference between the groups could be found for the other antioxidants tested.

It may come as no surprise to natural health followers that a variety of
nutrients from natural food sources and supplements help in the prevention and
treatment of many potentially lethal diseases. Vitamin C and beta-carotene
cross the blood-brain barrier where they help to squelch stress-related
oxidation. In this capacity, the duo synergistically promote the normal
clearance of amyloid proteins to help protect against Alzheimer's dementia.

Sources for this article include:

http://iospress.metapress.com/content/h3215182vr7h5830/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120911103040.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/ip-vca091112.php

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