According to research conducted by a team led by Cedric Annweiler, MD, PhD, at the Angers University Hospital in France, having a high amount of vitamin D in your diet can be vital for your cognitive wellbeing, even reducing your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
These findings were based on data from the Toulouse cohort of the Epidemiology of Osteoporosis study, in which 498 community-dwelling women participated. Researchers found that the women with a lower baseline vitamin D intake of 50.3 micrograms per week were those that had developed Alzheimer’s disease, whereas those who developed other, less threatening dementias had an average vitamin D intake of 63.6 micrograms per week. Those who had developed no dementia at all also had a higher vitamin D intake than those who had developed Alzheimer’s disease. Interestingly, however, at an average of 59.0 micrograms per week, this was not as high as the vitamin D intake of women who had developed other forms of dementia.
Another study, led by Yelena Slinin, MD, MS, at the VA Medical Centre in Minneapolis, found that low vitamin D levels particularly harm among older women, as this leads to a higher chance of global cognitive impairment and decline. Investigators analysed a larger sample than Annweiler’s study, investigating 6257 community-dwelling older women who had their vitamin D levels and cognitive function measured during the Study of Osteopathic Fractures and the Mini-Mental State Examination respectively. They found that older women with less than 20 nanograms of vitamin D per millilitre of blood serum were associated with a higher risk of incident global cognitive decline, which increased in danger for women with half of that amount of vitamin D.
This follows studies earlier this year which have demonstrated that mobility limitations and disability can also be caused by a vitamin D deficiency. Therefore, it’s paramount to your wellness to get enough vitamin D, either from diet, supplements, or sun exposure.
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