Last Updated on April 11, 2022 by Neelam Singh
Quick Take
A social media post claims that sunflower seeds prevent Alzheimer’s disease because it has high vitamin E levels. We fact-checked and found the claim to be Mostly False.
The Claim
A Twitter post claims, “New information on Alzheimer’s: nuts and sunflower seeds help prevent it because of their high vitamin E levels”.
Fact Check
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disease that degrades thinking and reasoning skills to affect memory. The condition makes it difficult for people to strike up a conversation.
As the condition worsens, people often find themselves unable to coordinate their five senses to think, reason and remember better. Such a situation can withdraw people from their social life. An isolated person may experience loneliness or low self-esteem that further aggravates the condition making it tough to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Can vitamin E prevent Alzheimer’s disease?
Not enough evidence. The available research papers only speculate about the positive effect of vitamin E against the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
A (2014) study notes that ‘Vitamin E includes a group of eight structurally-related, lipid-soluble, chain-breaking antioxidants: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols: α (alpha), β (beta), γ (gamma) and δ (delta)’. Out of these eight antioxidants, only α-Tocopherol has been studied widely by researchers throughout the globe. This MDPI study further suggests vitamin E may reduce the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. But further human trials are needed to prove the same. On the contrary, another (2017) paper found no effect of vitamin E on reducing the progression of the disease.
It seems we can conclude with a (2012) research claim, “Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and plays an important role in protecting cells against the harmful effects of free radicals. There is sufficient evidence from laboratory and animal studies to justify human investigation of this medicinal product for AD patients. However, there continues to be a paucity of RCTs investigating the efficacy of vitamin E in AD”.
Can sunflower seeds prevent Alzheimer’s disease?
Not enough evidence. We could not find any research paper that suggests natural vitamin E in sunflower seeds has a healing effect against Alzheimer’s disease.
Neurologist Dr Abhishek Juneja says, “Despite extensive ongoing research relating to Vitamin E and cognition, the existing evidence is inconclusive regarding Vitamin E role in preventing or delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in humans.”
However, we could find a few recently published research papers that have studied the effect of β-sitosterol in the sunflower seeds against Alzheimer’s disease. These papers had a common conclusion of ‘β-sitosterol being a potential compound for the management of memory deficit disorders like Alzheimer’s disease’. But, further human trials are needed to understand the mechanism with which β-sitosterol slows the progression of cognitive decline’.
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