Interestingly, E4 carriers with MCI also had the highest levels of Vitamin E. Apparently, a high level of vitamin A with a low level of vitamin E predicted the best cognition for our genotype.Among MCI subjects, ApoE4 subjects have the highest serum TC, TG, LDL-C, α-TOH levels and VE/VA ratio (α-TOH/retinol and γ-TOH/retinol). The lowest serum HDL-C, retinol and lipid-adjusted retinol levels were also found in ApoE4 subjects. ApoE4 subjects also demonstrated the lowest visual-spatial and executive, naming, attention, language, memory and delayed recall, orientation abilities and total MoCA score. The lowest daily vegetable and fish intakes were also observed in ApoE4 subjects.
The authors attempted to draw diet correlations and found that a low levels of vegetables predicted low Vitamin A which is interesting given that vegetables only contain the precursor, beta-carotene. Many Europeans (including myself) have variations of the BCMO1 gene which cause a 30% to 70% decrease in the amount of vitamin A that we get from beta-carotene. As such, I’ve been supplementing with a daily 1/2 tsp of cod liver oil and a small amount of grass-fed liverwurst several times a week. I was unable to determine if the Chinese shared a similar level of poor conversion of beta-carotene to Vitamin A.
You may be able to check your SNPs through 23andMe, depending upon which chip you’re using:
rs7501331
CC: normal
CT: decreased beta-carotene conversion
TT: decreased beta-carotene conversion
rs12934922
AA: normal
AT: decreased beta-carotene conversion
TT: decreased beta-carotene conversion
Three other variants that are found near the BCMO1 gene have also been shown in a small study to affect the rate of conversion by about 50%
* rs11645428 – GG has lower beta-carotene conversion
* rs6420424 – AA has lower beta-carotene conversion
* rs6564851 – GG has lower beta-carotene conversion
Diminished circulating retinol and elevated α-TOH/retinol ratio predict an increased risk of cognitive decline in aging Chinese adults, especially in subjects with ApoE2 or ApoE4 genotype
https://www.aging-us.com/article/101694/text