Evaluating Research on Dementia and Vitamin E

To critically review the role of
vitamins in prevention of
dementia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am so grateful to all those persons who have given me support, guidance as well as much
needed motivation so as to complete the current research study. Firstly, I owe my thanks to mentor
who gave me chance to undertake this dissertation. Furthermore, I am thankful to my team
members, family and friends who helped me in all possible accords. This led to successful
completion of dissertation and achievement of relevant results.

ABSTRACT
Background: Dementia is a mental disorder that reduces the ability of brain functioning. The
patient suffering form same finds it difficult to communicate with others as well as recognizing
family members. He further faces issues of memory loss or mental decline. In this regard,
vitamins play a key role to reduce the chances of dementia. It is further known that vitamin
deficiency has led to an increase in dementia patients. The low levels of them especially vitamin
D has been acting as a potential risk factor.
Aim: This dissertation is based on role of vitamins in prevention of dementia.
Search Strategy: The search strategy followed the use of different electronic databases such as
Science Direct, British Nursing Index, PUB MED, CINHAL PLUS, PubMed, Emerald insight
and Google scholar. There has been use of key search terms like Vitamin and Dementia.
Key Findings: it has been found out that vitamin C, D, B6, B12 and B9 play a key role to keep
mind healthy and active. They further aid to reduce risk of brain degeneration that is likely to
result in dementia.
Recommendations: It can be recommended that the individual who are vulnerable to developing
dementia are required to take adequate amount of vitamin to minimize dementia problems easily.
By changing the lifestyle and quitting certain habits, it can be easy to prevent from dementia
diseases.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Rational...................................................................................................................................1
Overview of dissertation.........................................................................................................2
Aim and Objectives................................................................................................................3
Research question...................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND REVIEW.....................................................................................5
Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................................11
3.1 Analysis and justification for Systematic Review (SR).................................................11
3.3 SR Protocol.....................................................................................................................11
3.3.1 Literature Search Strategy......................................................................................11
3.3.2 Search terms............................................................................................................11
3.3.3 Inclusion & exclusion criteria.................................................................................12
3.3.4 Sources....................................................................................................................13
3.3.5 Database decisions..................................................................................................13
3.4 Quality assessment strategy............................................................................................14
3.4.1 Boolean operators...................................................................................................14
3.4.2 Prisma flow chart....................................................................................................15
Identification....................................................................................................................15
Eligibility............................................................................................................................15
Included.............................................................................................................................15
Screening..........................................................................................................................15
3.4.3 Critical appraisal tools –CASP...............................................................................16
3.5 Positivism philosophy....................................................................................................16
3.6 Validity and Reliability..................................................................................................16
3.7 Ethical issues..................................................................................................................17
3.8 Data extraction strategy..................................................................................................17
chapter 3: Findings and results......................................................................................................18
3.1 Data extraction................................................................................................................18
3.2 Synthesis of the extracted evidence................................................................................22
3.3.1 Thematic analysis...................................................................................................26

Chapter 4: DISCUSSION..............................................................................................................30
4.1 Integration of the results of your findings with existing research and theory................30
4.2 Critical analysis of knowledge and clinical practice gap and discussion.......................31
4.3 Consideration to effectively communicate review findings...........................................31
chapter 5: implication for practice and reflection..........................................................................34
5.1 How will you utilize the results of the SR to move practice forward............................34
5.2 Recommendations for future research............................................................................34
5.3 Reflection on the whole SR process and your own learning..........................................35
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................38
references.......................................................................................................................................41
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................43
CASP Analysis.....................................................................................................................43

INTRODUCTION
Dementia is a kind of metal disorder which results to decline in mental ability due to
brain disease or injury, personality changes, etc. While suffering from dementia, patients feel
difficulty in understanding or using language, complexity in recognizing family, etc. Doctors
examine dementia with the help of Mini Mental State Exam. Patients can reduce memory loss or
mental decline by keeping their mind active and body fit (Dementia due to metabolic causes.
2016). There are various causes of dementia which includes Alzheimer's disease, vascular
disease, lewy body disease, traumatic head injury, alcohol abuse, brain abscess, etc. Good
personal health habits and proper medical care plays an important role in preventing dementia
(Prince and et.al., 2013). It is further known that vitamin deficiency has led to an increase in
dementia patients. The low levels of them especially vitamin D has been acting as a potential risk
factor.
The present research is based on systematic review of the vital role played by vitamins in
prevention of dementia. Systematic literature review refers to the research study which is formed
by systematically collecting information from multiple studies. It includes proper planning and
mapping with respect to the research, its scope, concepts, various sources of collecting relevant
data, evaluation of obtained information and proper record of complete research (What is a
systematic review, 2016).
Rational
What is the issue?
The presence of dementia in patients is itself an issue. This is as dementia is not just
"forgetfulness. The patient further exhibits communication, emotional, and behavior problems.
The caregivers also face an issue when the love ones start facing these issues. Moreover, the
doctors have further found it difficult to prevent dementia in patients who are suffering from it.
Thus, it is important for the doctors and health care organizations to resolve this issue for
providing proper treatment to the patients and to reduce death percentage of it (Beard, 2011).
Why it is an issue?
Moreover, the dementia patients are acting as a huge source of burden on health care
professes. This in as the patients require proper care due to their overall inability in making
decisions (Blundo, Marin and Ricci, 2011).
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Why it is an issue now?
Due to the changes in living style, people have ignored balanced diet, regular physical
and mental exercises which results in deficiency of vitamins and proteins. Along with this,
people have started preferring instant packed fast food, , , etc. which results in improper
development of individuals and this inappropriate and ineffective development leads to cause
vitamin deficiency dementia (Jung, 2015).
Research will shed light on?
The current investigation will determine the issues related to the cause of dementia, its
symptoms, treatments and proper medication. Along with it, this research will focus on the
various areas for preventing vitamin deficiency dementia, various factors for reducing mental
loss, different tools and techniques for diagnosing this disease and other factors for preventing
patients from vitamin deficiency (DeLuca and et.al, 2013). The proposed study will develop new
strategies for preventing people from vitamin deficiency and suggest them to follow healthy
measures for preventing from dementia.
Overview of dissertation
Dementia is a form of mental disorder which causes due to various mental and physical
diseases. Generally it occurs when the brain neurons die and connection between them are
discontinued. Various conditions which can cause dementia are creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
immunodeficiency syndrome, multiple sclerosis, degenerative diseases and many other
conditions (O'Leary, Allman-Farinelli and Samman, 2012). Along with it, sometimes dementia
also causes due to the depression, infection, metabolic changes and adverse reactions to drugs. In
a survey it is found that in developed nations, about 15% of old age people (above or equal to 65
years) are reported as suffering from dementia. It is also identified that 40% to 45% of people
suffers from dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. 20% due to vascular diseases and 20% due to
Lewy body disease (Dementia, 2013).
On the other hand, vitamin B12 and Vitamin D plays an important role for preventing
from vitamin based dementia. Vitamin B12 helps in keeping body's nerves and blood cells
healthy which results to make DNA. Hydrochloric acid plays a vital role in separating vitamin
B12 from the proteins (Gu, 2014). After this, vitamin B12 combines with the proteins formed by
the stomach and then absorbed by the body. People can maintain the level of B12 by eating
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variety of foods such as beef liver, fish, meat, milk, eggs, cereals, dairy products, etc. Lack in
vitamin B12 result in causing various diseases such as heart disease and dementia. It is important
to take proper diet which contains proper quantity of vitamins specially vitamin B for preventing
from dementia (Vitamin B12, 2011).
Vitamin D refers to fat soluble vitamin which is presented in very few food items. It is
essential for making bones strong. In addition, it also prevents from cold, and depression. The
best source of vitamin D is sun and if someone's body is facing trouble in absorbing it then they
are going to suffer from various problems one of them is dementia (Littlejohns and et.al, 2014).
Deficiency of either vitamin B12 or D results in causing dementia. It is important for
people to take proper diet from early age for preventing themselves from this disease. Lack of
vitamin B results to cause nutritional disorder which leads to suffer patient from loss of brain
functions, loss of memory, etc. This nutritional deficiency results to cause vitaminB1 and
vitamin B12 deficiency with respect to the dementia (Hurd, 2013). Doctors must focus on these
disorders and needs so to control them by understanding the symptoms. On the other hand, there
is a threshold level of circulating vitamin D, below this it increases the risk of dementia. The best
source for maintaining the level of vitamin D is sun and from its people can prevent from
dementia (Mercola, 2014).
It has further been found that deficiency of Vitamin D is a modifiable risk factor that is
linked with dementia. This is as Vitamin D has a major role to play in overall brain functioning
of human beings. At molecular level it has been found that brain has an ability to undertake
synthesis of vitamin D in its active form being 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D (Westwood, 2014).
This synthesis takes place in many kind of cell types as well as regions that are predominantly
present in hypothalamus and the large neurons of substantia nigra. Other than that there exist
many genes that are regulated by Vitamin D. This allows to synthesize products in response to
signals as well as stimuli. It is further clear that there exists a presence of Low vitamin D
concentrations all over the world in all ages (Jung, 2015). The need is thus to assess the link that
exists between vitamin D concentration and dementia by undertaking explicit examination of
evidence. This has thus generated the need to conduct comprehensive systematic literature
review so as to better understand the association between the two.
Aim and Objectives
Aim
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