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Health September 2014

Aid for Age

Vitamin D Found Surprisingly Helpful in Lowering Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s

By Tait Trussell

“We expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising — we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated.”

Vitamin D has a new booster. Researchers now find, in the largest study of its kind, that seniors who don’t get enough Vitamin D may double their risk of getting Alzheimer’s.

The study was just published in the online issue of Neurology. The important study involved testing vitamin D levels of 1,658 people over the age of 65 who were dementia-free. After an average of six years, 171 participants developed dementia and 102 were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The study examined blood levels of vitamin D, which includes vitamin D from food, supplements and sun exposure. Dietary vitamin D is replete in fatty fish such as salmon, tuna or mackerel as well abundant in milk, eggs, and cheese.

“We expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising — we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated,” said study author David J. Llewellyn, PhD, of the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom.

The study found that people with low levels of vitamin D had 53 percent more risk of developing dementia and those who were severely deficient had a 125 percent increased risk compared to those participating in the study with normal levels of vitamin D.

People with lower levels of vitamin D were nearly 70 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and those who had severe deficiency were over 120 percent more likely to develop the killer disease.

“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. That said, our findings are very encouraging, and even if a small number of people could benefit, this would have enormous public health implications given the devastating and costly nature of dementia,” said Llewellyn.

Dementia is broadly characterized by a decline in thinking and memory. Alzheimer’s disease, which affects about 5 million people in the U.S., is the most common type of dementia associated with aging. And with the aging baby boomer population, the number of people living with Alzheimer’s is expected to increase nearly three-fold by 2050.

The study was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Mary Kinross Charitable Trust, the James Tudor Foundation, the Halpin Trust, the Age Related Diseases and Health Trust, the Norman Family Charitable Trust and the UK National Institute for Health Research.

 

Tait Trussell is an old guy and fourth-generation professional journalist who writes extensively about aging issues among a myriad of diverse topics.

Meet Tait