People who don’t get the ample of Vitamin D are more prone to Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, as suggested by a new report published in journal Neurology.
Dementia is not a single disease itself rather it’s a general term to describe the symptoms such as forgetfulness and memory loss, lack of critical and rationale thinking and other mental disorders. Out of all kinds, Alzheimer is the most popular.
Dementias are basically caused due the death of brain cells. Neurodegenerative disorders which refers to progressive death of brain cells that happens over a course of time, also contribute to the disease.
Vitamin D is also referred to as the sunshine vitamin, for Sun being its largest reservoir. It is observed that if regular exercise is performed in sun for few times a week, an adequate amount of the nutrition can be derived. While the nutrient can be accessed from outdoor activities, several eatables also inculcate the vitamin. These perhaps include eggs, cheese, milk and tuna, salmon and mackerel. These days this is also available in the forms of supplements.
Researchers from University of Exeter Medical School examined elderly people in the Cardiovascular Health Study. “We expected to find an association between low vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia, but the results were surprising- we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated”, said lead author Dr. David Llewellyn.
Participants with low or moderate deficiency of the vitamin posed a risk of 53% for developing dementia of any kind. However higher deficiency can cause 125% risk. If particularly Alzheimer is to be discussed about, 69% risk is for the lower deficiency and 122% for the higher deficiency.
Some 44 million people of the world are already succumbed to the disease and this amount is expected to get tripled by 2050. Worryingly, around one billion people around the globe have low vitamin D levels.
This is a link established between low levels of vitamin and dementia; however scientists are still on the way to carry out research which can assure that whether consumption of nutrition rich foods can actually help in condensing the risks of the disease.
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