Dietary Antioxidants and Dementia in a Population-Based Case-Control Study among Older People in South Germany

Article type: Research Article

Authors: von Arnim, Christine A.F.^a | Herbolsheimer, Florian^b | Nikolaus, Thorsten^c | Peter, Richard^b | Biesalski, Hans K.^d | Ludolph, Albert C.^a | Riepe, Matthias^e | Nagel, Gabriele^{b; *} | the ActiFE Ulm study group

Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany | [b] Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany | [c] Agaplesion Bethesda Clinic, Ulm, Germany | [d] Department of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, Food Security Center, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany | [e] Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Mental Health and Old Age Psychiatry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Gabriele Nagel, MD, Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 22, Ulm 89081, Germany. Tel.: +49 731 50 310 73; Fax: +49 731 50 12 310 73; E-mail: gabriele.nagel@uni-ulm.de.

Abstract: Oxidative stress is believed to play a central role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease. Antioxidants may prevent the onset AD as high dietary intake of vitamin C and E were reported to be associated with lower risk of the disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of antioxidants in persons with mild dementia to test whether it is associated with lower levels of antioxidants in a cross-sectional study in the population of the “Activity and Function in the Ederly in Ulm” (ActiFE) study. Main exposure measures were vitamin C, vitamin E, β-carotene, lycopene, and coenzyme Q10 as analyzed by HPLC. Main outcome measures were mild cognitive impairment among 74 mildly demented compared to 158 age- and gender-matched controls. We found that blood vitamin C and β-carotene concentrations were significantly lower in demented than in control persons even after adjusting for school education, intake of dietary supplements, smoking habits, body mass index, and alcohol consumption (3rd versus 1st tertile: OR: 0.29, 95% CI, 0.09–0.96 and 0.13, 95% CI, 0.03–0.55, respectively). No associations were found for vitamin E, lycopene, and coenzyme Q10. Our findings suggest an association of vitamin C and β-carotene with dementia. However this is limited to the cross-sectional character of our study and longitudinal data will give further insight into this association.

Keywords: Antioxidants, beta carotene, dementia, older population, oxidative stress, vitamin C

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-2012-120634

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 717-724, 2012