DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240398

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS

DATELINE: BOSTON                            LENGTH:   88 lines

VITAMIN E PILLS FOUND TO SLOW ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS DELAYED SUCH MAJOR MILESTONES AS ENTERING A NURSING HOME BY ABOUT SEVEN MONTHS.

Researchers have found that ordinary vitamin E pills modestly slow Alzheimer's - the first time any treatment has been shown to change the course of the mind-robbing disease.

Patients with moderately severe Alzheimer's who took high doses of the vitamin in a two-year study delayed such major milestones as entering a nursing home by about seven months.

The study - the largest ever involving Alzheimer's - also found that selegiline, or Eldepryl, a standard prescription drug for Parkinson's disease, does the same thing and seems to work about as well as vitamin E.

Researchers suspect the treatments work by absorbing oxygen molecules in the brain, called free radicals, that can damage proteins, nerves and other vital cells, especially in the elderly. Experts say this offers an important clue for finding other drugs that will be even more effective.

Dr. John Growdon of Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the researchers, said he has begun routinely giving his Alzheimer's patients vitamin E, the cheaper of the two treatments.

``This is not an overwhelming effect, but it is the first time we have seen long-term benefit,'' Growdon said. ``I find that very encouraging.''

The study was directed by Mary Sano, an associate professor of clinical neuropsychology at Columbia University, and was published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

It found that both vitamin E and selegiline decreased Alzheimer's patients' loss of their ability to bathe, dress, handle money and do other routine chores by about 25 percent.

``It opens up another encouraging avenue for the families of patients with the disease,'' said Edward Truschke, president of the Alzheimer's Association.

It also raises the possibility that vitamin E might also protect those who are still healthy from eventually getting the disease, although this has not been studied.

``The obvious question is, `Should I take vitamin E?' '' Truschke said. ``Because of the other health benefits it has, it probably can't hurt. But at the same time, there are some mild side effects. Anyone taking a new medication should consult with their physician.''

Indeed, vitamin E is turning out to be a remarkably versatile nutrient. Some believe it wards off cancer, and there is strong evidence that it is good for the heart.

Last year, one major study found that daily vitamin E reduces heart attacks by 75 percent in people who have bad hearts. Another found evidence that foods rich in vitamin E - such as mayonnaise, margarine, salad dressings, vegetable oil and eggs - reduce women's risk of heart disease by two-thirds.

However, high doses of vitamin E can occasionally cause bleeding.

The latest study was conducted on 341 men and women who lived outside nursing homes but needed supervision. They were randomly assigned to one of four daily treatments: 2,000 international units of vitamin E, 10 milligrams of selegiline, the two together or placebos, which are dummy pills.

The researchers measured the time it took for these people to reach one of four major milestones: admission to a nursing home, inability to perform basic daily activities, progression to severe dementia, or death.

They found that after an average of 440 days, at least one of these things had happened to the people taking placebos. However, these events took 230 days longer to happen to those on vitamin E and 215 days longer for those taking selegiline.

Despite these results, neither drug had a clear effect on survival, cognitive function or the ability to perform basic activities, such as feeding, grooming and remaining continent.

For reasons that the researchers could not explain, the patients using the two drugs together fared considerably worse. Their slide was delayed by just 145 days.

``It reminds us that two drugs are not necessarily better than one,'' Sano said.

It also raises questions about whether doctors should combine vitamin E or selegiline with the two other Alzheimer's drugs on the market - tacrine, or Cognex, and donepezil, or Aricept - which mildly improve some patients' mental capacity but do not slow the disease.

Sano cautioned that while the treatments slow Alzheimer's, they do not make patients seem any better. And because of the often-erratic course of the disease, ``it would be very difficult for a family member to determine whether any patient had actually benefited.''

The dose of vitamin E given in this study, 2,000 international units, is more than 60 times the recommended dietary allowance of 30 international units a day. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press, The

Boston Globe and The Washington Post.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu