A study led by researchers from the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) has concluded that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a significantly higher risk of suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease .
The scientists, in collaboration with various universities such as Columbia, Washington, Florida, Pittsburg or Michigan (USA) analyzed 1,658 adults aged 65 or over , capable of walking without assistance and without problems of dementia, stroke or cardiovascular disease. All of them were followed for 6 years to see if they developed both dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The conclusions of the work astonished the experts themselves, since they discovered that those who had a lack of vitamin D (which we can obtain by exposing the skin to sunlight or ingesting oily fish, milk, dairy products … .) had a 53% higher risk of developing dementia of any kind . If it is very low levels of vitamin D, the risk increased up to 125% more.
With Alzheimer’s disease, the results were very similar. Vitamin D deficiency increased the risk of suffering from this disease by 69% and a very low level of this vitamin increased the risk up to 122%.
The study, which has been published in the journal Neurology , found that having vitamin D above 50 nmol / L is associated with good brain health . On the contrary, the deficiency was established between 25 and 50 nmol / L, increasing, according to the study’s conclusions, the chances of suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s.
