Does an increase in vitamin E help those with Parkinson's?

A fellow caregiver asked...

Does an increase in vitamin E really offer help to those with Parkinson's Disease?

Expert Answer

Graham A. Glass, MD, is the co-founder of PEAK Neurology and Sleep Medicine, LLC with multiple locations across Alaska. Previously, he was deputy director of the San Francisco Parkinson's Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Care Center PADRECC and assistant clinical professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Glass received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at the San Antonio School of Medicine and completed his neurology residency at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He subsequently completed a fellowship in movement disorders at the Mayo Clinic.

Although there has been much interest in vitamin E for multiple neurodegenerative diseases, there is not compelling data to suggest that there a role for vitamin E in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. Further, there is not good data to support a role of vitamin E in slowing the disease progression. There were several reports of vitamin E slowing or preventing parkinsonism in animal models of PD, but human studies did not replicate these findings.