No abstract

Dietary intake of n-3 fatty acids and weekly consumption of fish may reduce the risk of incident Alzheimer disease.

A higher level of total daily physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of AD.

These data suggest that AD pathology is more likely to be clinically expressed as dementia in women than in men.

GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE suggests that oxidative processes may be involved in the etiology of Alzheimer disease (AD). 1 Accumulated damage to lipid membranes and DNA by oxygen free radicals and reactive oxygen species is thought to disrupt normal cell functioning and lead to neuronal death. 2 Antioxidant nutrients, including vitamin E, vitamin C, and beta carotene, are among the body's natural defense mechanisms against oxidative stress. The antioxidant nutrients have been shown through animal and laboratory studies of brain tissue to decrease lipid peroxidation 3-11 and the oxidation of proteins, 12,13 inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species, 6,14,15 prevent mitochondrial dysfunction 12,16 and DNA fragmentation, 6,17 and reduce neurotoxicity, 18,19 apoptosis, 15,19-21 and neuronal death. 18,22 Few studies have examined the relation between dietary intake of antioxidant nutrients and the development of AD. Two prospective studies 23,24 that reported on the association of vitamin E and vitamin C supplement use and AD yielded conflicting results, but both had limited power to test the hypothesis, and neither had dietary information. We report on the association between incident AD and intake of antioxidant nutrients from foods and supplements in a large community study, the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP).