Nutritional supplementation for Alzheimerʼs disease?

Abstract

Overall consideration of the most recent collective evidence suggests that the optimal approach for Alzheimer's disease would seem to combine early, multicomponent nutritional approaches (a Mediterranean-style diet, multivitamins and key combinatorial supplements), along with lifestyle modifications such as social activity and mental and physical exercise, with ultimate addition of pharmacological agents when warranted.

A Nutritional Formulation for Cognitive Performance in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Placebo-Controlled Trial with an Open-Label Extension

“…Interventions to avoid or delay cognitive decline, including nutritional modifications, have the greatest potential for efficacy when initiated prior to cognitive decline [3][4][5][6]. This is in direct contrast with pharmacological interventions, which require prior cognitive decline for efficacy [4].…”

Relative Efficacy of a Nutritional Intervention on Cognitive Performance Across the Adult Lifespan and During Early Cognitive Decline

“…Lifestyle modifications including nutritional and social enrichments and cognitive exercise/training can enhance and preserve cognitive performance in older adults [1]. Moreover, multiple studies indicate that improved nutrition promotes and maintains cognitive performance throughout the adult lifespan [2][3][4]. Lifestyle modifications have the advantage that they can be initiated at any time, as opposed to the inherent compromise of waiting until sufficient cognitive decline has transpired to warrant diagnosis and prescription of pharmacological agents [4,5].…”

“…Moreover, multiple studies indicate that improved nutrition promotes and maintains cognitive performance throughout the adult lifespan [2][3][4]. Lifestyle modifications have the advantage that they can be initiated at any time, as opposed to the inherent compromise of waiting until sufficient cognitive decline has transpired to warrant diagnosis and prescription of pharmacological agents [4,5]. Moreover, individuals and/or their caregivers * Correspondence to: Thomas B. Shea, Department of Biological Sciences, UMass Lowell, Lowell, MA 02154, USA.…”

“…While non-pharmacological interventions can improve cognition and delay progression of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia, and in some cases may be as or more effective than pharmacological approaches, heterogeneity of subjects and variability in interventions and outcomes continued to limit firm conclusions [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Interpretation is further confounded with non-pharmacological approaches since participants are typically not naïve to treatments and participants may have inherent deficiencies in metabolism or differential absorptive capacity of nutrients [4]. Even with pharmacological interventions, combinatorial approaches display increased efficacy of both non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapies [4,19].…”

“…Interpretation is further confounded with non-pharmacological approaches since participants are typically not naïve to treatments and participants may have inherent deficiencies in metabolism or differential absorptive capacity of nutrients [4]. Even with pharmacological interventions, combinatorial approaches display increased efficacy of both non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapies [4,19]. A combinatorial nutritional supplement consisting of three vitamins (folic acid, B12, alpha-tocopherol) and three nutraceuticals (S-adenosyl methionine, N-acetyl cysteine, acetyl-L-carnitine) maintained and improved cognitive performance for individuals with no known or suspected cognitive difficulties nor any other confounding illness (defined as "healthy" with respect to cognitive performance) [20], those diagnosed with MCI [21], and those diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) [22][23][24].…”