The Swedish Research Council has awarded ARC professor Miia Kivipelto a three-year grant to study a gap in health care knowledge identified by the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment. Her project will use two large, ongoing randomized clinical trials to study the use of Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E in delaying and preventing Alzheimer’s disease—the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Dementia  and the European Union LipiDiDiet project.
The grant will allow researchers to clarify the effects of Omega-3 and vitamin E supplementation in two groups of people: those at raised risk of Alzheimer’s dementia but with no signs or symptoms of the disease and those with some signs and symptoms but who are not yet diagnosed with the disease. The project will also clarify the desirable levels of all eight forms of vitamin E in the blood and provide information that can lead to improved recommendations about dietary intake of all eight vitamin E forms and of Omega-3 fatty acids.

• Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01041989
• LipiDiDiet: http://www.lipididiet.eu/
  Photo by: Stefan Zimmerman