X-Message-Number: 24454 From: "Michael C Price" <> References: <> Subject: Niacin prevents Alzheimer's and slows cognitive decline (was: Vaccine Slows Alzheimer's Decline) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 00:48:00 +0100 A caution about the vaccine that James mentions. The news story says: "The vaccine was intended not to prevent Alzheimer's, but to treat it. The experiment was halted in early 2002 after 18 of 300 participants developed brain inflammation. " There may be a an easier to way to deal with Alzheimer's: take niacin (vitamin B3) to prevent it and also combat the more general problem of age-related cognitive decline. A new study shows that even quite modest amounts of niacin can reduce by a factor of five (yes, five!) the risk of Alzheimer's. The benefit from larger amounts may be greater -- the study did not find any plateau effect with the higher doses, after they corrected for other confounding factors. (I take about a 100x the amount used in this study!) Other substance that have shown benefit in preventing or treating Alzheimer's are lycopene, carnitine, thiamine, pyridoxine and cobalamin. The last three are also B-vitamins. I'll post the references here, if anyone wishes. In the meantime, here is the niacin study: Dietary niacin and the risk of incident Alzheimer's disease and of cognitive decline. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2004 Aug;75(8):1093-9 by Morris MC, Evans DA, Bienias JL, Scherr PA, Tangney CC, Hebert LE, Bennett DA, Wilson RS, Aggarwal N. PMID: 15258207 "BACKGROUND: Dementia can be caused by severe niacin insufficiency, but it is unknown whether variation in intake of niacin in the usual diet is linked to neurodegenerative decline. We examined whether dietary intake of niacin was associated with incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cognitive decline in a large, prospective study. [.] CONCLUSION: Dietary niacin may protect against AD and age related cognitive decline." "The protective association with higher niacin intake became stronger (p for trend = 0.04) after further adjustment for multivitamin use and intake of the antioxidant nutrients (vitamin C, beta-carotene, or vitamin E from food sources) that were found in previous reports to be possibly protective against AD. Intake of niacin from foods had an inverse association with AD in the basic adjusted model (p for trend = 0.002) (table 2). Participants in intake quintiles 2-4 had 70% reductions in risk compared with those in the lowest quintile (median intake 12.6mg/day [0.84 RDA]), whereas participants in the highest fifth of intake (median 22.4mg/day [1.49 RDA]) had an 80% reduction in risk; all were statistically significant. The relative risks were only slight less protective in the multiple adjusted model [which included the B-vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, folate - MCP] and remained statistically significant." So taking 1.49 of the RDA of niacin over 0.84 caused a five-fold reduction the risk of Alzheimer's; the rate of cognitive decline (from all causes) across the whole population was also lowest in the highest quintile, at 44% of the rate of decline in the lowest quintile. Lowest Quintile: 13.2-27mg niacin equivalents, higher than the RDA of 16/14mg/d and the 8.8mg/d/2000kcal below which pellagra is apparent (the classic definition of "deficiency"). Cheers, Michael C Price http://mcp.longevity-report.com http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24454