Vitamin C and Alzheimer’s Disease

What causes Alzheimer’s Disease? No one knows the answer. But an article in the Journal, “Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders” claims there’s an important link between heart disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. The link is atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries). What amazes me is that since it’s been shown vitamin C can reverse atherosclerosis in coronary arteries, why isn’t any one advocating its use in trying to prevent this catastrophic disorder?

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Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center in Oakland, California, and the University of Kuopio in Finland, tracked 10,000 people for 40 years. They found that high blood cholesterol was associated with a 66 percent higher risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. What was more worrying was that those who had borderline levels of blood cholesterol were 52 percent more likely to develop this disease. John Hopkins University along with the Universities of Minnesota, North Carolina and Mississippi followed 11,000 people to see how lifestyle factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes affected the brain. And how many of these Americans would be hospitalized for the treatment of dementia. After tracking these people for 14 years they discovered that smokers were 70 percent more likely to develop dementia than nonsmokers. Those suffering from hypertension were 60 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with normal pressure and patients with diabetes were at 50 percent greater risk of dementia than non diabetics. But there was no association between midlife obesity and dementia. Dr. Alvaro Alonso, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, said, “If we can find risk factors for dementia, maybe we can develop new treatments to prevent the risk of dementia later in life.” Alonso added that post-mortem studies show that the brains of patients suffering from dementia often show damage to small blood vessels. These arteries may have triggered small strokes that would eventually lead to brain damage. Doctors normally start to treat patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and other brain disorders such as dementia when symptoms first appear. But at this point of time it’s usually a hopeless task. I have recently seen first hand the slow insidious deterioration of a friend suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. He no longer knows me and there’s no therapy that will help him. The big question is whether high doses of vitamin C could have prevented this tragedy if it had been started earlier. Since atherosclerosis is a possible culprit in causing Alzheimer’s Disease it’s important to remember some past history about vitamin C. Doctors invariable “pooh pooh” the value of vitamin C by saying it doesn’t work for the common cold. But that isn’t the point. The fact is that Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner, stressed for years that animals produce their own vitamin C and humans do not, and that the lack of this vitamin triggers hardening of arteries and coronary death. Now, Dr. Sydney Bush, an English researcher, has convincing evidence that Pauling was right. Bush has shown that high doses of vitamin C, and the amino acid lysine, reverse atherosclerosis in retinal arteries. This is a huge finding because if large doses of vitamin C can dissolve atherosclerosis in retinal vessels, good sense tells you it can have the same effect on coronary arteries and those in the brain. And if treatment started earlier in life vitamin C could have an immense impact on these diseases. This research should win another Nobel Prize. Currently I’m not aware of any studies being done on the use of Vitamin C and Alzheimer’s Disease. I’d also predict that none will be started as there’s no money to be made selling vitamin C. But I believe cardiologists and other doctors are making a major error in not exploring the value of vitamin C for more patients. I believe it prudent to keep an open mind to new ideas. Admittedly, not so open your brains fall out and you blindly accept every new concept. But Pauling and Bush are distinguished researchers and their work deserves more respect. This September I’ll have a new website where all previous columns on C can be read.