Reports how antioxidant vitamins like A, C and E may help keep the
brain healthy. Studies on people taking vitamin C; Beta-carotene and
mental deterioration.
By
Peter Doskoch,
F. Bryant Furlow, published on March 01, 1997
Nutrition
Researchers have long suspected that destructive molecules called
free radicals play a role in memory loss as we age. But only recently
have they looked at whether antioxidant vitamins like A, C, and E, which
shield our cells from free radical damage, can help keep the brain
healthy. Now the evidence is trickling in--with conflicting but
encouraging results.
On one hand, British scientists recently checked up on more than
900 people whose diets had been analyzed 20 years earlier, when they were
age 65 and older. In the 1970s, those in the top third for vitamin C
intake were less likely to have cognitive impairments than folks in the
bottom third. Now researchers find that the high vitamin C group was also
half as likely to have died of a stroke by the 1990s.
But in a separate study of people ages 55 to 95, Dutch scientists
concluded that vitamin C did not stave off mental deterioration--but that
another antioxidant, beta-carotene, did. Why the mixed verdict? No one's
sure. Even so, experts say the two studies give credence to the growing
belief that one of the best gifts you can give your brain is a visit to
the supermarket produce aisle.
Edited by Peter Doskoch
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