Tufts University conducted a study that found that vitamin D supplements could prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Their research showed that older adults with higher levels of vitamin D in their bodies had a better cognitive performance.
Sunlight is the main source of Vitamin D. Senior adults have wrinkly skin leading to less adept at processing the vitamin. Fortunately, the study shows that this age group could take supplements to maintain sufficient levels of brain functioning.
According to Dr. Sarah Booth, a senior study author, the study proves how important it is to investigate the role of food and nutrients in preventing age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
Dementia is a serious illness that manifests in old age. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Despite dementia being the most common psychiatric disease in old age, there is no treatment. Unfortunately, scientists believe that the cases of dementia will triple to 150 million globally by 2050; hence scientists are pushing for lifestyle preventive measures, such as dietary changes.
The researchers gathered 209 post-mortem brain tissue samples from the Rush Memory and Aging Project from 1997. The team is the first to evaluate vitamin D levels in older adults who experienced cognitive decline.
Kyla Shea, a study author and associate professor at Tuft’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, states that other studies have looked into nutrition’s impact on the cognitive performance of older adults. These studies all measure the blood levels of vitamin D or dietary intake. Shea and her team took a different approach by measuring vitamin D levels in the brain to investigate its presence in the organ and its link to cognitive decline.
The researchers found that the vitamin D levels in the four regions they evaluated impacted cognition. Moreover, two of these regions have shown a link to dementia. One causes dementia due to reduced blood flow, and the other is associated with vascular diseases.
However, researchers didn’t find a connection between the vitamin and amyloid beta protein, the markers for Alzheimer’s disease. For this reason, they are still unaware of how vitamin D affects cognitive performance.