Vitamin D reduces risk of Alzheimer’s disease in women, say studies

Vitamin D could be a vital factor for the cognitive health of aging women, according to two new studies.

The studies, which appeared in the ‘Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences’, also show that higher dietary intake of vitamin D lowers the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in women.

This was substantiated by a research conducted by a team led by Cedric Annweiler, MD, PhD, at the Angers University Hospital in France.

Another research conducted at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, headed Yelena Slinin, MD, MS, linked low vitamin D levels to older women with higher chances of global cognitive impairment and a higher risk of global cognitive decline.

In Slinin’s study, 6,257 women living in a community were tested during the Study of Osteopathic Fractures and whose cognitive function was tested by the Mini- Mental State Examination and/or Trail Making Test Part B.

Findings of Annweieler’s team were based on research conducted on 498 women living in a community in the Toulouse cohort of the Epidemiology of Osteoporosis study.

Annweieler’s team’s study found that women who developed Alzheimer’s disease had lower baseline vitamin D intakes (an average of 50.3 micrograms per week) than those who developed other dementias (an average of 63.6 micrograms per week) or no dementia at all (an average of 59.0 micrograms per week).

Both these studies concluded that both men and women who have vitamin D deficiency suffer either from diet, supplements, or sun exposure, and they may be at higher risk of developing mobility limitations and disability.