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Vitamin D is Essential Nutrient for Brain Health

Study Bolsters Evidence of Link Between Vitamin D and Dementia

A more recent study published in JAMA Neurology adds to the growing body of evidence linking low vitamin D levels to cognitive decline. The most recent study to demonstrate the importance of vitamin D to brain health involved 382 participants with an average age of 75.5 years. Some participants had dementia, others had mild cognitive decline and others were healthy.

Researchers took blood tests every year for five years to evaluate the vitamin D levels in each participant and found that participants who had been diagnosed with dementia had a lower vitamin D average than the other groups. Researchers also conducted cognitive tests that evaluated episodic memory, semantic memory, visual perception and executive function. Those tests showed that participants with lower levels of vitamin D demonstrated a greater decline in both cognitive ability and episodic memory.

Authors of the study say that their findings demonstrate a link between vitamin D and cognitive decline:

“Vitamin D insufficiency was associated with significantly faster declines in both episodic memory and executive function performance, which may correspond to elevated risk for incident AD [Alzheimer’s disease] dementia.”