Dietary Supplements a Waste of Money for Most Seeking to Avoid Dementia, Experts Say

A report from an AARP panel of brain specialists concluded that dietary supplements are of no value for healthy seniors seeking to avoid or reverse dementia, according to the Sacramento Bee . "The market is so large they get by without rigorous documentation of the efficacy of their products," notes neurologist Ronald Petersen with the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. The University of California, Davis' (UC Davis) John Olichney adds, "Supplements . . . are being taken largely without the endorsement or prescription of a doctor. There's a lot of unnecessary spending, and there's also unnecessary confidence that if you take supplements, you can prevent dementia, and there aren't high-quality randomized clinical trials showing that prevention effect empirically." Olichney also says preliminary research at UC Davis on the use of vitamin D in individuals with vitamin deficiencies has shown "some tantalizing associations with cognitive decline."