Dear Dr. Roach: I would like to know what you think about brain supplements and whether you would recommend any. My age is 84 and I am in good health, but my memory is getting bad.
B.S.
I see advertisements daily for supplements touted to have benefits in preventing or slowing progression of dementia. A careful review of the published data (where there is any) reveals no consistent evidence that supplements are effective in the treatment or progression of Alzheimer’s disease. There may be one exception: vitamin E. Patients who want to try that in reasonable doses, such as 2,000 IU daily, may have a modest benefit. These benefits are likely to be smaller than with the approved prescription treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, and even those are fairly small in most cases.
Regular moderate exercise; a mostly plant-based diet high in fruits, vegetables and legumes and with moderate fish and low meat; and cognitive exercises all are much more likely to show benefit than any medication or supplement. Conditions that can adversely affect brain health, especially poorly controlled diabetes and blood pressure, should be aggressively treated.
Dear Dr. Roach: I am 87 and have heart disease. I take atorvastatin and aspirin. Is it dangerous for me to get a flu shot?
J.B.
It’s more dangerous for you NOT to get a flu shot than it is to get one. Although there are risks to the flu shot, they are small and almost always involve symptoms that last a day or two at the most. Even though the flu shot is “only” about 50% effective, that means a lot less flu, and flu in an 87-year-old person with heart disease is very dangerous and can be fatal. This year in particular, we want to keep people with flu out of the emergency rooms and hospitals because of COVID-19, and the single best way to do that is through flu shots.
Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu
