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