Our bodies naturally produce Vitamin D under sun exposure, which makes many people not worry about getting enough of the organic molecule. But paradoxically enough, that can lead to vitamin D deficiency in some individuals as they neglect eating the right food.
Over 55 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia, a condition that has no cure at the moment. Instead, there are plenty of bad decisions that a person can make to favor the development of dementia in the long run: self-isolation, sedentarism, not getting enough sleep, not eating healthy, and more.
Low levels of Vitamin D are associated with higher risk of dementia and stroke
University of South Australia researchers initiated a new study on data belonging to 294,514 individuals from the UK Biobank that raises hopes to stop dementia from developing, according to SciTechDaily.com. The research found that low Vitamin D levels are equivalent to a higher risk for the individual to deal with dementia and a stroke at some point in life.
Surprisingly enough, Vitamin D deficiency was also found to be connected to lower brain volumes. It’s also worth keeping in mind that genetic analysis supported the idea of a causal effect existing between dementia and not getting enough Vitamin D into the body.
The researchers used Nonlinear Mendelian randomization (MR) to look for underlying causes for certain conditions, including dementia.
Professor Elina Hyppönen, the senior investigator, explained as SciTechDaily.com quotes:
Vitamin D is a hormone precursor that is increasingly recognized for widespread effects, including on brain health, but until now it has been very difficult to examine what would happen if we were able to prevent vitamin D deficiency,
Our study is the first to examine the effect of very low levels of vitamin D on the risks of dementia and stroke, using robust genetic analyses among a large population.
The scientist also added, as the same source quotes:
In some contexts, where vitamin D deficiency is relatively common, our findings have important implications for dementia risks. Indeed, in this UK population we observed that up to 17 percent of dementia cases might have been avoided by boosting vitamin D levels to be within a normal range.
The new study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.