Washington, April 16 (IANS) Vitamin E appears to help patients with Alzheimer’s survive longer than those who don’t take the vitamin, according to a study. Known to delay the progression of moderately severe Alzheimer’s disease, now it has been shown to increase the survival time of these patients as well, said study’s co-author Valory Pavlik, of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

“This is particularly important because recent studies in heart disease patients have questioned whether vitamin E is beneficial for survival.”

Researchers surveyed 847 people with Alzheimer’s for an average of five years and found that two-thirds took 1,000 international units of vitamin E twice a day along with an Alzheimer’s drug (an inhibitor). Less than 10 percent of the group took vitamin E alone and approximately 15 percent did not take vitamin E.

Those who took vitamin E, with or without cholinesterase inhibitor, were found to be 26 percent less likely to die than people who didn’t take vitamin E.

“Our findings show that people who took a cholinesterase inhibitor without vitamin E did not have a survival benefit,” said Pavlik. “More research needs to be done to determine why this may be the case.”

These findings were presented at the Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago Tuesday.