Page 163 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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and ingesting a capsule of 800 IUs of vitamin E daily. At that time, the antioxidant and antiaging
properties of vitamin E were well known, but there were no data to indicate that it could directly
prevent memory loss. However, recent studies have produced positive results, and vitamin E is now a
frontline strategy to prevent memory loss due to the aging process.

Take Vitamin E to Prevent Memory Loss

Vitamin E is present in high-fat (but luckily, low-saturated fat) foods like vegetable oils, germs,
nuts, and seeds.
It is impossible for you to get more than 200 IUs daily through diet alone.

Since vitamin E-rich foods can only go so far, you should take 400 to 800 IUs of vitamin E daily
as a promemory (and antiaging, more broadly) dose, with 1,200 units for those among you who are
more adventurous. Higher doses of vitamin E can cause headache, raise blood pressure, and increase
the risk of bleeding in people taking anticoagulant medications like warfarin (Coumadin). There
were few side effects in the study involving more than three hundred Alzheimer's patients who each
took 2,000 IUs of vitamin E daily, but note that patients at high risk like those on Coumadin were
excluded from study participation. Research-wise, large-scale, systematic studies with vitamin E
have moved beyond Alzheimer's disease to people with mild memory loss, but these will take a few
more years to complete.

The Antioxidant Selegiline or Deprenyl

Jozsef Knoll, a Hungarian university professor, developed selegiline as an antidepressant medication
in the 1950s. Its antidepressant action is related to its ability to inhibit the enzyme monoamine
oxidase-B (MAO-B), thereby raising the brain level of monoamines, which function as
neurotransmitters. These monoamines include dopamine, which is needed for normal muscle control,
sex drive, cognition, and novelty seeking or adventurous behavior. Based on its actions on the brain's
dopamine system, selegiline is also widely used as a medication to treat Parkinson's disease.

Selegiline's Promemory Actions

Inhibition of the enzyme monoamine oxidase-B, which in turn leads to a reduction in the
formation of toxic free radicals.