According to a recent large-scale study, taking vitamin D supplements may help prevent dementia. Researchers from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the link between vitamin D supplementation and dementia in more than 12,388 participants from the US National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, who had an average age of 71 and were Dementia free when they signed up. Of the group, 37 percent (4,637) took vitamin D supplements.
In the study, published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring, the team found that taking vitamin D was associated with living longer dementia-free, and they also found 40 percent fewer dementia diagnoses in the group who took the supplement. Took diet , Of the entire sample, 2,696 participants progressed to dementia over ten years; Of those, 2,017 (75%) were not exposed to vitamin D at all visits prior to dementia diagnosis, and 679 (25%) had baseline exposure.
Professor Jahinur Ismail, from the University of Calgary and the University of Exeter, who led the research, said: “We know that vitamin D has some effects in the brain that may have implications for reducing dementia, however so far, the research has been inconsistent. have obtained conflicting results. Our findings provide important insight into groups that may be specifically targeted for vitamin D supplementation. Overall, we have found evidence to suggest that earlier supplementation prior to the onset of cognitive decline can be particularly beneficial.
While vitamin D was effective in all groups, the team found that the effect was significantly greater in women than in men. Similarly, the effects were greater in people with normal cognition than in those who reported symptoms of mild cognitive impairment — changes in cognition that have been linked to a higher risk of dementia. The vitamin D effect was significantly greater in people who did not have the APOEe4 gene, known to present a higher risk for Alzheimer’s dementia than non-carriers. The authors suggest that people with the APOE4 gene absorb vitamin D better from their intestines, which may reduce the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation. However, no blood levels were drawn to test this hypothesis.
Previous research has found that low levels of vitamin D are associated with higher dementia risk. Vitamin D is involved in the clearance of amyloid in the brain, the accumulation of which is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have also shown that vitamin D may help protect the brain from the build-up of tau, another protein involved in the development of dementia.
Co-author Dr Byron Craze at the University of Exeter said: “Preventing dementia or delaying its onset is extremely important given the increasing number of people affected. The link with vitamin D in this study suggests that vitamin D Taking supplements may be beneficial in preventing or delaying dementia, but we now need clinical trials to confirm whether this is indeed the case. Participants in the VitaMIND study, running at the University of Exeter, were given either is exploring this issue by randomly assigning subjects to take vitamin D or a placebo and examining changes in memory and thinking tests over time.” The VitaMIND study is run through PROTECT, an online study open to people age 40 and older.