Vitamin D, Omega-3 May Help Clear Amyloid Plaques Found in Alzheimer's

A question for your doctor. Should you be doing something like this in order to reduce the possibility of increased risk of Alzheimers from your stroke event.? You do expect your doctor to know the answer? Don't you?   
No self precribing.
http://www.docguide.com/vitamin-d-omega-3-may-help-clear-amyloid-plaques-found-alzheimers? 
 Vitamin D₃ and omega-3 fatty acids may enhance the immune system's ability to clear the brain of amyloid plaques -- one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
The pilot study, published in the February 5, 2013, issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, identified key genes and signalling networks regulated by vitamin D₃ and the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that may help control inflammation and improve plaque clearance.
Previous laboratory work by the team helped clarify key mechanisms involved in helping vitamin D₃ clear amyloid-beta, the abnormal protein found in the plaque. The new study extends the previous findings with vitamin D₃ and highlights the role of omega-3 DHA.
"Our new study sheds further light on a possible role for nutritional substances such as vitamin D₃ and omega-3 in boosting immunity to help fight Alzheimer's," said Milan Fiala, MD, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
For the study, researchers drew blood samples from both patients with Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls, then isolated critical macrophages from the blood.
The team incubated the immune cells overnight with amyloid-beta. They added either an active form of vitamin D₃ called 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ or an active form of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA called resolvin D₁ to some of the cells to gauge the effect they had on inflammation and amyloid-beta absorption.
Both 1alpha, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ and resolvin D₁ improved the ability of the Alzheimer's disease patients' macrophages to gobble-up amyloid-beta, and they inhibited the cell death that is induced by amyloid-beta. Researchers observed that each nutrition molecule utilised different receptors and common signalling pathways to do this.
Previous work by the team, based on the function of Alzheimer's patients' macrophages, showed that there are 2 groups of patients and macrophages. In the current study, researchers found that the macrophages of the Alzheimer's patients differentially expressed inflammatory genes, compared with the healthy controls, and that 2 distinct transcription patterns were found that further define the 2 groups: Group 1 had an increased transcription of inflammatory genes, while Group 2 had decreased transcription. Transcription is the first step leading to gene expression.
"Further study may help us identify if these 2 distinct transcription patterns of inflammatory genes could possibly distinguish either 2 stages or 2 types of Alzheimer's disease," said co-author Mathew Mizwicki, MD, David Geffen School of Medicine.
While researchers found that 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ and resolvin D1 greatly improved the clearance of amyloid-beta by macrophages in patients in both groups, they discovered subtleties in the effects the 2 substances had on the expression of inflammatory genes in the 2 groups. In Group 1, the increased-inflammation group, macrophages showed a decrease of inflammatory activation; in Group 2, macrophages showed an increase of the inflammatory genes IL1 and TLRs when either 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ or resolvin D₁ were added.
Dr. Fiala said that although more studies are needed, these differences could be associated with the severity of patients' nutritional and/or metabolic deficiencies of vitamin D₃ and DHA, as well as the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid.
"We may find that we need to carefully balance the supplementation with vitamin D₃and omega-3 fatty acids, depending on each patient in order to help promote efficient clearing of amyloid-beta," said Dr. Fiala. "This is a first step in understanding what form and in which patients these nutrition substances might work best."
According to Dr. Fiala, an active (not oxidised) form of omega-3 DHA, which is the precursor of the resolvin D₁ used in this study, may work better than more commercially available forms of DHA, which generally are not protected against the oxidation that can render a molecule inactive.
The next step is a larger study to help confirm the findings, as well as a clinical trial with omega-3 DHA, the researchers said.