Australian researchers Researchers analyzed genetic data from nearly 295,000 participants from the UK biobank biomedical database to measure the impact of low vitamin D levels on a person’s brain neuroimaging and their risk dementia and stroke. The results of this extensive study, published in The american journal of clinical nutrition, indicate that vitamin D has clearly implications for the development of neurocognitive diseases such as dementia. And that a high level of vitamin D reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.
“In my view, strategies for fortifying foods with vitamin D need to be seriously considered, and in countries where this has already been done, it has been possible to increase concentrations at the population level.” underlines the Professor Elina Hypponen, lead author of this study.
While waiting for the addition of vitamin D in certain foods, here are the Top 15 Foods Naturally High in Vitamin Dwhich you can add to your menus.
A risk already identified by Inserm
The Three Cities (3C) study is a cohort that in the year 2000 included nearly 10,000 people aged 65 and over, in good health, or at least not suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The participants in this study were reviewed at regular intervals by psychologists and underwent a battery of neuropsychological tests which made it possible to diagnose and identify all new cases of dementia, and more specifically Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2017, two researchers from Inserm in Bordeaux were able to analyze the blood status of the participants in this study, focusing in particular on the concentrations of nutrients: fatty acids, carotenoids, vitamins E, D and A. Indeed, several of these nutrients could predict the risk of dementia, but no study has yet looked at their combined role.
Initially, the researchers focused on vitamin D. Studies had already shown that a deficiency of this vitamin increases the risk of cancer, high blood pressure or uterine fibroids, but the risk of developing a neurological disease n had not been clearly established.
This first Inserm study showed that participants with a vitamin D deficiency (25%) or insufficiency (60%) had a risk multiplied by 2 of developing dementia and a risk multiplied by nearly 3 of develop Alzheimer’s disease compared to those with a satisfactory vitamin D status. Then, in a second study, Inserm researchers from unit 1219 Bordeaux Population Health (BPH) revealed a particular profile: elderly people with the lowest combined blood levels of vitamin D, carotenoids and polyunsaturated fatty acids (“good fats”) had a 4-fold increased risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease compared to those with the highest blood levels high for these nutrients.
According to the researchers, “the excess risk conferred by this multiple deficiency in fat-soluble nutrients appears to be much higher than the risk linked to genetics”. Thus, maintaining adequate vitamin D blood status in the elderly could help delay or prevent dementia, especially of the Alzheimer’s type. Both works were published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
Source : Vitamin D and brain health: an observational and Mendelian randomization studythe American journal of clinical nutrition, June 2022
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