Vitamin A protects cognition in E4 carriers

[Plumster]

Try to get Vitamin A from whole foods like vegetables and fruits (or meat sources). This study concludes that taking vitamin A supplements may increase mortality:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17327526

[Rainbow]

Thanks Julie! Before reading this, I didn't know about my (several) decreased beta-carotene conversion SNPs. Time to load up on some Vitamin A-rich foods.

[Anna]

Try to get Vitamin A from whole foods like vegetables and fruits (or meat sources). This study concludes that taking vitamin A supplements may increase mortality:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17327526

I think this is an important meta-analysis that we should all take note of, so I copied and pasted this from the abstract:

"DATA EXTRACTION: We included 68 randomized trials with 232 606 participants (385 publications). DATA SYNTHESIS:
When all low- and high-bias risk trials of antioxidant supplements were pooled together there was no significant effect on mortality (RR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.98-1.06). Multivariate meta-regression analyses showed that low-bias risk trials (RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.04[corrected]-1.29) and selenium (RR, 0.998; 95% CI, 0.997-0.9995) were significantly associated with mortality. In 47 low-bias trials with 180 938 participants, the antioxidant supplements significantly increased mortality (RR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08). In low-bias risk trials, after exclusion of selenium trials, beta carotene (RR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.11), vitamin A (RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.10-1.24), and vitamin E (RR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01-1.07), singly or combined, significantly increased mortality. Vitamin C and selenium had no significant effect on mortality."

Back to the Vitamin A/ApoE4 topic . . . It seems that there are still some unanswered questions. How much vitamin A is too much? If we convert Ok from beta carotene (My SNPs weren't too bad!), would this be the preferred source? Is cod liver oil something we should be supplementing and if so, how much?

[SoCalGuy]

Thanks for sharing this Julie! I am TT for the rs12934922 SNP. I appear to not be deficient in any of the others. A big part of why I eat sweet potato is that they are absolutely loaded with vitamin A. 1 cup of sweet potato has nearly 19,000 IU of Vitamin A.

Happy to help! I think this may be important for us. My understanding is that a cup of sweet potato actually has no vitamin A. The conversion from beta-carotene to Vitamin A happens in your body and TT means that you convert poorly. Maybe higher amounts of beta-carotene will get the job done? Foods like liver and cod liver oil have actual vitamin A.

It took a while but I was able to get my Vitamin A tested. It turns out I am fine. According to LabCorp <20ug/dL is considered low and my current amount is 43.7 ug/dL. I do eat a lot of sweet potatoes so I guess there's a chance I do convert poorly and I get enough beta carotene to keep my A levels fairly high. For the record I do not take cod liver oil.

[circular]

My first vitamin A test was normal, but my next was right about the lowest of normal, so I upped my intake. That's just to say that it may be something to follow and may fluctuate, until you determine that unchanging habits are keeping it normal.

[Julie G]

It took a while but I was able to get my Vitamin A tested. It turns out I am fine. According to LabCorp <20ug/dL is considered low and my current amount is 43.7 ug/dL. I do eat a lot of sweet potatoes so I guess there's a chance I do convert poorly and I get enough beta carotene to keep my A levels fairly high. For the record I do not take cod liver oil.

Nice, SoCalGuy! Thanks for sharing with us. You may want to plug your number into the paper above to see how you compare to their dataset. From my untrained eye, your level, converted to 2.11 umol/L, seems to be correlated with the "normal" cognition group. Kudos!

Would you mind sharing how much sweet potato or carrots you eat per day? Also, give us an idea of your general age & state of health, both of which can play a part in being able to make the conversion.

[SoCalGuy]

It took a while but I was able to get my Vitamin A tested. It turns out I am fine. According to LabCorp <20ug/dL is considered low and my current amount is 43.7 ug/dL. I do eat a lot of sweet potatoes so I guess there's a chance I do convert poorly and I get enough beta carotene to keep my A levels fairly high. For the record I do not take cod liver oil.

Nice, SoCalGuy! Thanks for sharing with us. You may want to plug your number into the paper above to see how you compare to their dataset. From my untrained eye, your level, converted to 2.11 umol/L, seems to be correlated with the "normal" cognition group. Kudos!

Would you mind sharing how much sweet potato or carrots you eat per day? Also, give us an idea of your general age & state of health, both of which can play a part in being able to make the conversion.

Thanks Julie! I will have to give it a look later. As far as overall health goes, I am 49 years old and have a 23.6 BMI. Blood pressure has always been good, below 120/80. In looking at a list of foods rich in beta carotene I actually eat quite a few of them.

Foods I eat nearly every day:
1 cup sweet potato
1/2 cup spinach
1 cup kale
1/2 cup romaine lettuce

All of the leafy green vegetables I eat are raw so the spinach and kale may have lower amounts of beta carotene.

Foods I eat several times a week (~3x)
2 cups broccoli

I saute the broccoli

Foods I eat 1x per week
1 cup carrots

I saute the carrots

[Berri]

Thanks, Julie! Can anyone tell me if the kind of liver matters? I always liked chicken livers (but chicken-fried) but the other kind leaves me cold.

[Brainstormer]

Julie - thank you so much for posting these findings and to read all the related comments. My issue is that I'm allergic to all forms of fish so supplementing with cod liver oil isn't an option but I eat tons of veggies so hope I'm getting enough that way. All this has encouraged me to go back to my extrapolated 23&me results and dig into these snps a bit!

[floramaria]

Julie - thank you so much for posting these findings and to read all the related comments. My issue is that I'm allergic to all forms of fish so supplementing with cod liver oil isn't an option but I eat tons of veggies so hope I'm getting enough that way. All this has encouraged me to go back to my extrapolated 23&me results and dig into these snp's a bit!

Hi, Brainstormer. Welcome to the site. Please let us know what you discover about what your genetics say about your ability to convert beta carotene to Vit A once you check those SNPs.
Maybe those tons of veggies are converting into healthy Vit A levels. Quite likely if you don't have the SNPs that decrease conversion. If you have the SNP's for decreased conversion, you may want to check your levels. As apod says in his post in this thread, it is really difficult to know where your levels stand without testing; if you test one time, that would give you a good indication of whether what you are already doing is enough to put you in optimal range.

If you haven't seen it yet, you may want to check out the Primer, an excellent resource written by a physician member. It provides a balanced and comprehensive overview of the ApoE4 allele and the most powerful interventions to reduce risks associated with it.

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Best wishes,
floramaria