Have you taken your Vitamin D today, or stepped out into the sunshine for 15 minutes?
If dementia worries you, you possibly should.
A robust study out of University of Exeter Medical School found that study participants who were severely Vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The study grabbed headlines around the world, in a hall of mirrors, from the Telegraph: Study: sunshine ‘could help to stave off dementia’ to Forbes: Dementia Risk And Vitamin D Levels: Is There A Connection?.
You’ll be reading about it for days.
What’s the buzz about?
According to Eurekalert.org, the team discovered that adults in the study who were moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 percent increased risk of developing dementia of any kind, and the risk increased to 125 percent in those who were severely deficient.
“Similar results were recorded for Alzheimer’s disease, with the moderately deficient group 69 percent more likely to develop this type of dementia, jumping to a 122 percent increased risk for those severely deficient.”
The study, published in the Aug. 6 2014 online issue of Neurology, “looked at 1,658 adults aged 65 and over, who were able to walk unaided and were free from dementia, cardiovascular disease and stroke at the start of the study. The participants were then followed for six years to investigate who went on to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.”
As with all studies, the international team cautions that more research is needed.
Dr. David Llewellyn, the team lead, was reported as saying: “Clinical trials are now needed to establish whether eating foods such as oily fish or taking vitamin D supplements can delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
“We need to be cautious at this early stage and our latest results do not demonstrate that low Vitamin D levels cause dementia.”
To read more about the wisdom of waiting till a genuine causal relationship is established, click here: Health News Review.
About the author
