Nutritional drink may help fight Alzheimer's

January, 2010

A clinical trial has found improvement in verbal (but not general) memory in patients with mild Alzheimer's who drank a nutritional cocktail for 12 weeks.

A European trial involving 225 patients with mild Alzheimer's has found that those who drank Souvenaid (a cocktail of uridine, choline and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA, plus B vitamins, phosopholipids and antioxidants) for 12 weeks were more likely to improve their performance in a delayed verbal recall task. 40% of the Souvenaid group showed improved performance compared to 24% of the placebo group. Those with the mildest cases of Alzheimer’s showed the most improvement. There was no improvement on the more general ADAS-cog test. Three further clinical trials, one in the U.S. and two in Europe, are now underway.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/rumc-rum012510.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/miot-nat010610.php

Reference:

Scheltens, P. et al. 2010. Efficacy of a medical food in mild Alzheimer's disease: A randomized, controlled trial. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 6 (1), 1-10.

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