A study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring found that taking vitamin D was linked to a longer period of living without dementia. The group that took vitamin D supplements also had 40% fewer dementia diagnoses. People get vitamin D from sun exposure, foods (such as fatty fish), and supplements.
Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and dementia in more than 12,388 participants of the US National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, who had a mean 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 & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, the team found that taking vitamin D was associated with living dementia-free for longer, and they also found 40 percent fewer dementia diagnoses in the group who took supplements.
Across the entire sample, 2,696 participants progressed to dementia over ten years; amongst them, 2,017 (75%) had no exposure to vitamin D throughout all visits prior to dementia diagnosis, and 679 (25%) had baseline exposure.
Professor Zahinoor Ismail, of the University of Calgary and University of Exeter, who led the research, said: “We know that vitamin D has some effects in the brain that could have implications for reducing dementia, however so far, research has yielded conflicting results. Our findings give key insights into groups that might be specifically targeted for vitamin D supplementation. Overall, we found evidence to suggest that earlier supplementation might be particularly beneficial, before the onset of cognitive decline.”