Alzheimer’s disease is a terrible brain disease that robs older individuals of their memories and livelihoods. It is classified as a type of dementia and approximately five million people have been diagnosed with this progressive brain disease in the United States. Alzheimer’s disease has no cure and eventually people who suffer from it will die.

Elderly people are the only segment of people who develop Alzheimer’s disease because our brains age at the same rate that our bodies do. Elderly people have older brains and thus are more susceptible because their neurons are weaker.

 

People who have Alzheimer’s disease have too many free radicals in their bodies; these free radicals start to attack the brain’s neurons, damage the cells walls, and begin to slow down the body’s metabolic rates. If the neurons are not protected then they are more susceptible to becoming damaged; if they are damaged then they cannot end messages to the brain and other body systems. The brain cells then begin to deteriorate and die so the dementia becomes worse and worse until you cannot remember how to function or even who you are.

Vitamin E has been used by doctors to help treat the disease because vitamin E is an antioxidant. When it is given to patients with the disease it can help to protect their neurons by helping to prevent cell injury and reducing free radical formation. Free radicals are known to cause cancer and cardiovascular disease so this can help to delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. You can treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's but eventually the disease just overtakes the brain entirely.

Alzheimer's patients should have an adequate intake of Vitamin E in their diet. Vitamin E can be taken in a supplement form; it is also found in some foods. The following foods are known to contain Vitamin E: almonds, wheat germ oil, spinach, hazelnuts, peanut butter, broccoli, kiwi, sunflower oil, and mangoes.

Hopefully, there will be more clinical studies conducted on the effects of Vitamin E on Alzheimer’s patients. This may eventually help researchers find a cure for this terrible disease; hopefully more progress will be made in the next few years.

 

 

 

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