“If you lack vitaminD, it increases your risk of dementia and stroke.”
A study found that lack of vitamin D is directly related to the risk of dementia.
The Australian daily The Australian Internet edition reported on the 15th that the research team led by Professor Elina Hipponen, director of the Center for Precision Health at the University of South Australia, analyzed 294,514 UK Biobank genetic analysis data.
This study was conducted with Mendelian randomization, which analyzes the association between environmental risk factors of a particular disease and related gene mutations to infer causal relationships.
According to reports, people with vitamin D blood levels of 25 nmol/L have a 54% higher risk of dementia than those with 50 nmol/L.
The research team said, “It was analyzed that raising vitamin D’s blood level from 25 nmol/L to 50 nmol/L can prevent 17% of dementia patients,” adding, “VitaminD’s blood level should be at least 50 nmol/L, but 31% of Australian adults are below this.”
It was analyzed that there is a genetic causal relationship between vitamin D deficiency and dementia.
The research team explains that people who lack vitaminD had a small brain volume, a high risk of dementia and stroke, and that vitamin D protects brain health is biologically possible.
The research team said, “The hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, has vitamin D receptors. This may be a suggestion that vitamin D promotes the growth and maturity of neurons through the function of neurosteroids, he said.
“Vitamin D may be associated with a decrease in blood clots and the regulation of the renin-angiotensin system,” he said. “Vitamin D is believed to protect the brain by inhibiting excessive inflammatory neurovascular damage caused by the decline of inflammatory proteins cytokines and amyloid proteins commonly observed in Alzheimer’s dementia.”
Meanwhile, the results of this study were published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in the United States.