Analysis of clinical trials supports HF research

For over ten years, the Howard Foundation has been supporting research at the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) into the important of dietary supplements containing carotenoids towards eye and brain health.

A new paper published this month in the journal Antioxidants surveyed some 435 papers that addressed the effect of carotenoid intervention on cognitive function and selected nine for a meta-analysis. The meta-analysis included only randomized controlled trials which are considered the ‘gold standard’ of clinical studies. The 2018 paper from Rebecca Power at WIT is one of the nine that were selected.

The new paper, Carotenoids and Cognitive Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Intervention Trials, focussed on nine studies of healthy adults aged from 45 to 78 years. It states that “Although further studies are needed, our results suggest that carotenoid interventions are associated with better cognitive performance. Thus, these dietary compounds may help to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.” It concludes: “these results highlight the potential role of carotenoids in the protection of mental functions even in subjects without cognitive impairment. This is particularly important because the population is aging, and preservation of cognitive function is crucial for individual autonomy and quality of life“.

Rebecca Power has received direct support from the Howard Foundation. Click here to read her paper, Supplemental Retinal Carotenoids Enhance Memory in Healthy Individuals with Low Levels of Macular Pigment in A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial, that was co-authored by Dr Alan Howard and published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Rebecca’s paper reviewed data taken from the Central Retinal Enrichment Supplementation Trial [CREST] published in 2014 and subsequently widely cited.