Taking supplements containing vitamin D can reduce the risk of dementia, especially in older people and women, new medical research shows.
Vitamin D supplementsPhoto: © Celso Pupo Rodrigues | Dreamstime.com
It is estimated that more than 150 million people globally will develop dementia by 2050. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how lifestyle could reduce the incidence, maintaining our mental health as we age.
New study shows vitamin D supplements cut dementia risk by 40%
According to a new study published this week in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, elderly people who took vitamin D supplements had a 40% reduced risk of developing dementia over the next 10 years, compared to those who did not take the supplement. The researchers examined data from more than 12,000 participants with an average age of 71. They found that 75% of those who developed dementia over the next 10 years were those who were not given vitamin D supplements.
What’s more, women who took vitamin D supplements had a nearly 50 percent reduced risk of developing dementia than those who didn’t. By comparison, men who took vitamin D supplements also reduced their risk of dementia, but only by 26%.
The huge benefit for women is welcome given that globally, women with dementia outnumber men two to one.
“The administration of vitamin D supplements as early as possible could be beneficial,” claim the authors of the study. According to the study, it was concluded that people with intact cognitive abilities reduced their risk of dementia by 56% after taking vitamin D supplements. Those with mildly impaired cognitive abilities reduced their risk of dementia by 33%. And some were given vitamin D supplements in the following combination: calcium and vitamin D, cholecalciferol, or ergocalciferol. The benefits were similar for all three, according to the researchers. “Our findings provide key insights into groups that could be specifically targeted for vitamin D supplementation.
Overall, we found evidence to suggest that administration started before the onset of cognitive decline could be particularly beneficial,” says Zahinoor Ismail, one of the researchers, a professor at the University of Calgary and the University of Exeter, to Neuroscience News.
How vitamin D helps in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
The new study builds on previous research into the vitamin’s influence on the brain. A study at Tufts University found that higher levels of vitamin D in brain tissue were correlated with better cognitive function, such as memory. Vitamin D helps eliminate deposits of beta-amyloid proteins, abnormal accumulations of proteins in the brain that form the well-known “plaques” characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. “Vitamin D, like other nutrients, may create resilience to protect the aging brain against diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” wrote Sarah Booth, study author and director of the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. , in the study press release.
How much vitamin D do we need?
As a rule, our body produces enough vitamin D after 15-25 minutes of being in the sun. That’s why it’s also called the “sunshine vitamin”. Vitamin D can also be taken from food – cod liver oil, salmon, tuna, fortified milk, fortified yogurt, sardines, liver, egg yolk. For people aged 1 to 70 years, the recommended dose of vitamin D is 600 international units (IU). For those over 70, it rises to 800 IU. (For reference: a 90-gram serving of trout has 645 IU, and a cup of 2% fortified milk has 120 IU.) On the other hand, too much vitamin D can be bad! Overdosing can lead to very high levels of calcium in the blood, which will affect the kidneys, according to Harvard Health.
Vitamin D controversies
Because our body can produce vitamin D under the influence of sunlight, it is not really a vitamin, but rather a hormone. There are hundreds of studies related to vitamin D consumption, deficiency and the diseases it can cause. Until the 2000s, a low level of vitamin D involved diseases related to the bone system. Since then, studies began to appear, just as many, about its benefits in combating depression, fatigue, muscle weakness, even heart disease and cancer, writes SmartLiving.roin an extensive article about the controversies of this vitamin-hormone.
“Vitamin D seems to be involved in many other cellular processes of proliferation and differentiation, hypothesis raised following the discovery of receptors for vitamin D and the enzyme substrate necessary for the activation of vitamin D at the level of elements of the immune and hematopoietic system (no – formation of cells that make up blood), cardiac and smooth muscle, liver, breast, brain, skin and endocrine gland tissue. Moreover, the malignancies (no – cancers) developed at the level of these tissues, presenting the mentioned receptors, can respond to the antiproliferative actions of vitamin D (no – more clearly, vitamin D could be effective in combating these types of cancer), a current issue in research in many clinical trials with vitamin D analogs”, lists some of the potential additional benefits of vitamin D, Dr. Alexandra Nilă, in the article mentioned above. But she also points out that, “since many such benefits are currently purely theoretical, there are no recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in diseases of the mentioned tissues, other than those involved in phospho-calcium metabolism”.
If until a few years ago, vitamin D supplementation was only given to infants and the elderly with diseases of the bone system, new research recommends the administration of vitamin D supplements to adults as well.
In an interview conducted with dr. Alexis Pig about the role of vitamin D in immunity, the doctor recommends dosing this vitamin at least once a year and supplementation, when the doctor recommends following the analysis. “When I was taking 3,000-4,000 units a week and only exposing my face and hands to sunlight, I was constantly deficient. When I stayed with larger areas of skin exposed to the sun, I noticed the difference”, says the doctor. As for vitamin D’s role in the brain, even the authors of the study that started this article admit that while increasing vitamin D intake may be beneficial for some people, more research is needed on how this works. vitamin has a direct impact on the brain.