DEPRESSION CAN double the risk of developing dementia, while high levels of vitamin E could help to significantly reduce the risks of acquiring it, according to research which was published in the United States and Sweden yesterday.
The US research on depression was described as “robust” by the UK Alzheimer’s Society, which said that it added “considerable weight to the accumulating evidence of a link between depression and dementia”.
The US research tracked almost 1,000 people over 17 years of age, and found that nearly 50 per cent more of those suffering from depression went on to develop some form of dementia than those who were not depressed.
“It is well known depression is common in early stages of dementia.
“What this study demonstrates is that depression at a younger age is probably a significant risk factor for dementia,” said the director of research of the UK’s Alzheimer’s Society, Prof Clive Ballard.
In Sweden, a study reported that subjects with a high level of vitamin E in their diets – from nuts, seeds and olive oil – were half as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as those who consumed the least amounts of the vitamin.
The Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm measured vitamin E in blood taken from 232 men and women, who were all 80 years of age or older at the start of the study and free of dementia.
Six years later, 57 of them had developed Alzheimer’s but the disease was just half as common in those with a high level of vitamin E in their diets. The UK Alzheimer’s Society urged caution because of the small numbers in the study.
However, Prof Ballard said: “What is good for your heart is generally good for your head.
“Eating a healthy diet and doing regular exercise could reduce the risk of developing dementia by up to 60 per cent.”
Meanwhile, a leading British cancer charity, Cancer Research UK, is set to relax its sunbathing advice following evidence that too many people are now being left short of vitamin D, which protects bones and can have a role in fending off dementia and prostate cancer.
In a briefing paper, drawn up in co-operation with other organisations, it says: “The time required to make sufficient vitamin D is typically short and less than the time needed for skin to redden and burn.
“Regularly going outside for a matter of minutes around the middle of the day without sunscreen should be enough.”
The new advice from Cancer Research UK, which is to be published within weeks, will urge the public to take a common-sense approach, restricting sunbathing between 11am and 3pm, but, otherwise, to use less-strong sun creams.