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Observational epidemiological surveys (WG 3) page 76
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It is only because they involved carotenoid serum levels that the two following studies are
mentionned. They are small studies, 61 Parkinson disease patients and their spouses as
controls, and 88 subjects, respectively. Beside, the statistics are poor. In the first one
(Jimenez-Jimenez et al., 1993), β-carotene, α-carotene and lycopene were measured and there
was no significant difference between Parkinson patients and controls. In the second one
(Snowdon et al., 1996), all carotenoids were measured in plasma of nuns and analysed in
relation to dependance in self-care. Lycopene was inversely correlated to the number of
dependencies (as was cholesterol; there is no adjustment between the two variables). The
plausibility of this finding is weak.
Finally an intervention study has been conducted on 341 patients suffering a moderate
Alzheimer’s disease for two years (Sano et al., 1997). The end-point was the time-lag before
appearance of one event (death, severe dementia, loss of self-care capacity necessary
institutionalisation). The treatment was either vitamin E (2000 IU/day), or selegiline or both.
In vitamin E treated patients the risk for an event to occur was 53% lower than in the placebo
group, and was lower than in patients treated with selegiline or the combined treatment.
Conclusion
There was no study conducted on the effect of tomatoes, or even fruit and vegetables. Further
research is needed to confirm the results on vitamin C and E. Nutritional intervention studies
would also be interesting to implement. A food approach, instead of the nutrient approach
might be more informative. The necessity of collaborative studies between neurologists,
biologists and epidemiologists specialised in nutrition and ageing is mandatory.
Part 6: Other microconstituents of tomatoes
We evoked the possible role of other micro-compounds (phenolics compounds, potassium and
folates) of the tomatoes that could be responsible at least in part of its beneficial health effect
several times in this report. To achieve this report we decided to include the few important
studies related to these compounds.