Low vitamin D cause faster memory loss in older adults

Over the course of a five-year follow-up, participants who were vitamin D deficient saw cognitive declines that were two to three times more rapid than those whose serum levels measured adequate at baseline, according to the study.

Vitamin D comes from the sun and from some foods like nuts, lentils and fatty fish.

Study shows that older people should increase their intake of Vitamin D as reduced levels are linked to faster decline in mental functions.

The cognitive levels of roughly half of them were normal at the beginning of the study, 33 percent suffered from mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 17 percent had dementia. “Even if doing so proves to not be effective, there’s still very low health risk to doing it”.

The saddening results of the report show that 50% of Americans above 65 have insufficient levels of Vitamin D and that the probability of being Vitamin D deficient is highest I African origin people.

Low vitamin D levels were also associated with significantly more difficulty with remembering general information (semantic memory), seeing the relationship between objects (visuospatial ability) and managing overall thinking processes (executive function). Because skin tone affects an individual’s vitamin D production, the volunteers included whites, African Americans, and Hispanics. “But we need to see more research”.

Miller said so far there have been no serious researches to find out if taking vitamin D could slow down or prevent memory loss.

“There is good evidence that vitamin D gets into all cells of the body, including the brain”, Miller said, so it’s possible that vitamin D protects the brain from developing the plaques and tangles that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Experiments carried out at the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at the University of California, Davis, between 2002 and 2010 tested levels and mental ability once a year for an average of five years.

Although Dr. Gandy was not involved with the study, he believes that older people should be taking vitamin D supplements.

While people with darker skin are more prone to have low amounts of vitamin D, there was no difference in the rates of cognitive decrease based exclusively on racial or ethnic factors.

Vitamin D deficiency can make our bones to become much weaker, which may lead to bone deformities, such as rickets in the case of children.

Out of the total number of patients, 26 percent were diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency, while an additional 35 percent did not have sufficient levels without being deficient.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association – Neurology.

“During the warm weather, spending just 15 minutes in the sunshine is enough to boost your vitamin D levels”.

In winter, when sunlight is not powerful enough to create vitamin D in the skin, many require dietary supplements.