Vitamin D deficiency linked to dementia
Vitamin D deficiency in the elderly is linked to mental decline and Alzheimer’s, says researchers from the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center and Rutgers University. Their research is published online in JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network journal.
The study was conducted in nearly 400 men and women. Fifty percent of participants were Caucasian and 50% were African-American or Hispanic. The participants had a mean age of 76 and were either cognitively normal, had mild cognitive impairment, or dementia.
The participants’ serum vitamin D status was measured at the beginning of the study. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were prevalent among all of the study participants. Overall, 26% were deficient and 35% were insufficient.
Over five years of follow-up, vitamin D deficient individuals experienced cognitive declines that were two-to-three times faster than those with adequate serum vitamin D levels. In other words it took only two years for the deficient individuals to decline as much as their counterparts with adequate Vitamin D declined during the five-year follow-up period.
“This work, and that of others, suggests that there is enough evidence to recommend that people in their 60s and older discuss taking a daily vitamin D supplement with their physicians,” said Joshua Miller, professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
“Even if doing so proves to not be effective, there’s still very low health risk to doing it,” he continued.
“We expected to see declines in individuals with low vitamin D status,” said Charles DeCarli, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center. “What was unexpected was how profoundly and rapidly [low vitamin D] impacts cognition.”
Vitamin D can be obtained through vitamins, sun exposure, or dairy products.
Category: Features, Health alert
