New medical research suggests that taking supplements containing vitamin D may reduce the risk of dementia, especially in older people and women.

It is estimated that by 2050, more than 150 million people worldwide will develop dementia. Therefore, it is critical to understand how lifestyle can reduce morbidity while maintaining our mental health as we age.

New study finds 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 percent lower risk of developing dementia over the next 10 years compared to those who did not take supplements. Researchers studied 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 did not take vitamin D supplements.

What’s more, women who took vitamin D supplements had a nearly 50 percent lower risk of developing dementia than those who didn’t. In comparison, men who took vitamin D supplements also reduced their risk of developing dementia, but only by 26%.

The huge benefit for women is welcome given that there are twice as many women with dementia worldwide as men.

“Prescribing vitamin D supplements as early as possible may be beneficial,” the study authors say. 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. People with mild cognitive impairments had a reduced risk dementia by 33%. And some were given vitamin D supplements in the following combination: calcium and vitamin D, cholecalciferol, or ergocalciferol. The benefits were the same for all three, the researchers said. “Our findings provide key insights into groups that can be specifically targeted vitamin D supplements.

Overall, we found evidence that use started before the onset of cognitive decline may be particularly beneficial,” co-researcher Zahinor Ismail, a professor at the University of Calgary and the University of Exeter, told Neuroscience News.

How vitamin D helps with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

The new study builds on previous research into the vitamin’s effects on the brain. A study conducted at Tufts University found that higher levels of vitamin D in brain tissue correlated with better cognitive functions, such as memory. Vitamin D helps eliminate deposits of beta-amyloid proteins, the abnormal accumulations of proteins in the brain that form the well-known “plaques” characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. “Vitamin D, like other nutrients, can build resilience to protect the aging brain from diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias,” wrote Sarah Booth, study author and director of the USDA Jean Center for Human Nutrition Research Mayer on Aging. research press release.

How much vitamin D do we need?

As a rule, our body produces enough vitamin D after 15-25 minutes of exposure to the sun. That is why it is also called “sun vitamin”. Vitamin D can also be obtained from food – fish 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 increases to 800 IU. (For reference, a 90-gram serving of trout contains 645 IU, and a cup of 2% fortified milk contains 120 IU.) On the other hand, too much vitamin D can be harmful! According to Harvard Health, an overdose can lead to very high levels of calcium in the blood, which can lead to kidney damage.

Vitamin D controversy

Because our bodies can produce vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, it is not actually a vitamin, but rather a hormone. There are hundreds of studies related to vitamin D intake, deficiency, and the diseases it can cause. Until the 2000s, low levels of vitamin D caused diseases related to the bone system. Since then, just as many studies have begun to appear about its benefits in the fight against depression, fatigue, muscle weakness, even heart disease and cancer, writes SmartLiving.ro in a large article about the controversy of this vitamin-hormone.

“Vitamin D appears to be involved in many other cellular processes of proliferation and differentiation, a hypothesis put forward after 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 systems (no – the formation of cells that form blood), cardiac and smooth muscles, liver, mammary gland, brain, skin and endocrine gland tissue. In addition, malignant neoplasms (not cancer) developing at the level of these tissues, presenting the mentioned receptors, can respond to the anti-proliferative effect of vitamin D (no – more precisely, vitamin D can be effective in the fight against these types of cancer), an actual problem in studies in many clinical trials with vitamin D analogs,” lists some of the potential additional benefits of vitamin D, Dr. Alexandra Nila, in the article mentioned above. But she also notes that “because many of these benefits are currently purely theoretical, there are no recommendations for vitamin D supplementation in diseases of the mentioned tissues, except for those involved in phosphorus-calcium exchange.”

While a few years ago, vitamin D supplements were prescribed only to infants and elderly people with diseases of the bone system, new research recommends that adults also take vitamin D supplements.

In an interview conducted by Dr. Alexis Cochino on the role of vitamin D in immunity, the doctor recommends dosing this vitamin at least once a year and taking supplements when the doctor recommends after testing. “When I was taking 3,000-4,000 units a week and only exposed my face and hands to sunlight, I was constantly deficient. When I stayed with larger areas of skin exposed to the sun, I noticed a difference,” says Dr. As for vitamin D’s role in the brain, even the authors of the study that started this article acknowledge that while increasing vitamin D intake may be beneficial for some people, more research is needed to find out how it works.The vitamin has a direct effect on the brain.

Photo: Dreamstime.com