Vitamin C to treat Alzheimer's?

Vitamin C could potentially be used to treat toxic proteins which aggregate in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease, scientists have proven.

Treatment with vitamin C was seen to dissolve the amyloid beta aggregates in a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Lumps of amyloid plaques consisting of misfolded protein aggregates build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, attacking the nerve cells in the brain's memory centre.

Katrin Mani, reader in Molecular Medicine at Lund University, explained: "The useful vitamin C does not need to come from fresh fruit. In our experiments, we show that the vitamin C can also be absorbed in larger quantities in the form of dehydroascorbic acid from juice that has been kept overnight in a refrigerator, for example".

This follows findings which revealed that osteoporosis patients with low levels of vitamin D may not respond to their medication as well as those with normal rates, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

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