If you're anything like me, you have lots of ambitious plans for the future.

I've got a whole series of new books I want to write thousands more videos to script,

but guess what?

None of us may be able to do any of the things we want to do if we don't have our health.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today we look at new research about the efficacy of supplements in preventing Alzheimer's disease.

Oxidative stress from free radicals is one of the pathways implicated in the development

and deterioration of Alzheimer's brains,

given the evidence of excess oxidative DNA damage on autopsy.

So what about trying an antioxidant?

Vitamin E levels tend to be lower in the bloodstreams of those with cognitive impairment or dementia,

but which came first.

Maybe Alzheimer's disease led to poor eating rather than poor eating leading to Alzheimer's disease.

Greater vitamin E intake from foods is clearly associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's,

but greater vitamin E intake from supplements is not.

But that didn't stop researchers from including a vitamin

E arm in the largest primary prevention study of Alzheimer's disease to date. The prevention

of Alzheimer's disease by vitamin E and selenium trial randomized more than 7,500 older

men to take vitamin E, selenium, both or neither, just placebos, for five years.

To quote from the conclusion, neither supplement prevented dementia.

A separate long-term vitamin E supplementation trial of older women similarly found no protection

...