Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease fish oil lipoic acid
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 67
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study was to see if taking lipoic acid plus omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3s) can slow the Alzheimer's disease (AD) process. To see if the treatment can slow the AD process, the investigators looked at changes in memory and changes in a person's daily activities over 18 months.

Detailed description:
Current pharmacological agents for AD have had no impact on disease prevalence and have had limited effects on improving the clinical course of AD. The exponential rise in the prevalence, incidence, and cost of care for AD make finding therapeutic agents that can either prevent AD or delay disease progression an urgent health care need. Since inflammation, lipid dysregulation, and insulin resistance have each been associated with AD pathology, the combination of lipoic acid plus fish oil has the potential to maximize therapeutic benefit by acting on all three mechanisms associated with disease pathology.

Arms:
arm 1: Three 1-gram fish oil capsules per day (2 capsules in the morning and 1 capsule in the evening) plus two lipoic acid (LA) capsules per day in the morning. Total daily dose of study drug: 675 mg DHA, 975 mg EPA, 600 mg LA. arm 2: Three placebo oil capsules per day (2 capsules in the morning and 1 capsule in the evening) plus two placebo LA capsules per day in the morning.

Interventions: intervention 1: Lipoic acid and fish oil concentrate intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Lipoic acid (600 milligrams per day) and fish oil concentrate (3 grams per day) for 18 months intervention 2: Placebo LA and placebo oil capsules for 18 months

Protocol document: