Losing your mind: Is Alzheimer’s disease in your future or your parents’ future? Can sunlight and vitamin D help it?

Tight Fit!

I have previously posted regarding the effect of vitamin D on cognitive disability, autism and other brain disorders. With all of these disorders, there is a clear correlation between sunlight and/or vitamin D deficiency and decreased brain function.

Considering that most elderly people are severely vitamin D deficient and that there are vitamin D receptors throughout the brain, it would not be surprising to also find the same correlation with Alzheimer’s, which IS a brain disease. An excellent paper by Dr Fredrick Dyer[1] makes a case that Alzheimer’s is, at least in part, a vitamin D-deficiency disease.

Dr Dyer makes the point that many diseases or disorders—those that are well-established as correlating to vitamin D deficiency—are themselves risk factors for Alzheimer’s.

These include depression, osteoporosis, diabetes, poor cognitive abilities, periodontal disease, inflammation, tooth loss, low cognitive performance, poor strength, depression, congestive heart failure, peripheral artery disease, hypertension and arterial plaque.

In other words, Alzheimer’s shows a “co-morbidity” with these disorders, meaning that they may have the same underlying causes.

Lack of sunlight/vitamin D is likely one of those causes.

Until we know for sure, it is certainly a great idea to maintain high levels of vitamin D in ourselves and in our aging parents; there is no downside, and it may prevent us from losing our minds.

Another excellent paper on vitamin D and Alzheimer’s will be published soon;

I will keep you posted.

[1] Dyer, F. Deficient Vitamin D in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease. Unpublished manuscript furnished to author December 2008. Used by permission.

Another benefit of vitamin D for women: reduced risk of caesarian section.

I have already written about the benefits of vitamin D for the reduction of breast cancer, autistic births, pre-eclampsia and infection of the placenta. Research now shows that the risk of giving birth by caesarian section is dramatically increased by vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy.[1]

The authors of the research point out that childbirth is a muscular activity, and that muscle weakness is an established symptom of vitamin D deficiency. No thinking person can believe that caesarean section is a normal way to give birth, yet nearly one-third of all births are by caesarian section.

It is obvious that something is seriously wrong, and that “something” in most cases is likely vitamin D deficiency.

The research pointed out that those with low levels of vitamin D had four times the risk of caesarian section as those who had higher levels. However, many in the group with higher levels had nowhere near optimal levels of vitamin D.

If they had had optimal levels, it is likely that they would have been even more protected. Ladies, this is just one more reason to make optimal vitamin D levels a priority.

Get yours checked and make sure your levels of vitamin D [25(OH)D] are at least 50-60 ng/ml. You can get an inexpensive and accurate test—without a physician’s prescription—by visiting ordervitamindtest.org.

You can also get out in the sunlight during spring, summer and early fall, and supplement or visit a tanning bed in the winter.

Remember never to burn! [1]

Merewood, A. et al. Association Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Primary Cesarean Section. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2008 Dec 23, 2008 [Epub ahead of print]

Vitamin D and depression: how SAD!

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of winter-time depression experienced by people those who live in northern latitudes such as those of New York, Seattle, all of Canada, and Northern Europe.

I believe it is primarily a disorder of sunlight/vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D, when administered in late winter, produces a positive effect on mood in only five days.[1]

One theory for this is that vitamin D stimulates the brain to produce more serotonin.

In a wintertime experiment, serum vitamin D levels doubled in six months through supplementation and dramatically increased scores on a wellbeing assessment.[2]

Two groups were given either 1,000 IU or 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily. And although both groups improved, the higher dose produced better results.

In another investigation, researchers studied the association between vitamin D levels and the risk of mood disorders in the elderly.

The results were impressive. Those whose vitamin D levels were deficient—defined as less than 20 ng/ml—had 11.7 times the incidence of depression when compared to those whose vitamin D levels were highest.

Usually an association is considered meaningful when a measured factor correlates to a 50% increase or decrease.

In this case, the correlation between vitamin D deficiency and risk of mood disorders was a staggering 1,169 percent![3]

In addition, the researchers measured cognitive ability (mental capabilities).

In two of four tests, those with vitamin D deficiency exhibited cognitive performances that were 5.22 times and 3.22 times poorer than those who were not deficient.

Everyone that has ever ventured outside on a sunny spring day after a long winter, or even visited a tanning bed during winter, know how much the mood is elevated by the experience.

It is likely that the combination of light and vitamin D produce the effect.

Keep your vitamin D levels high this winter!

[1] Lansdowne, A. et al. Vitamin D3 enhances mood in healthy subjects during winter. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 1998;135:319-23.
[2] Vieth, R. et al. Randomized comparison of the effects of the vitamin D3 adequate intake versus 100 mcg (4,000 IU) per day on biochemical responses and the wellbeing of patients. Nutr J 2004;3:8.
[3] Wilkins C. et al. Vitamin D Deficiency Is Associated With Low Mood and Worse Cognitive Performance in Older Adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry;2006;14:1032–1040).

Vitamin D reduces the risk of placental infection: another boon for women.

Earlier, I wrote that autism was linked to vitamin D deficiency in pregnant mothers, and that women’s cancers were dramatically reduced by regular sunlight exposure. Now, research indicates that the risk of placental infection is impressively lowered by increasing vitamin D levels.[1]

This research did not surprise me. Immunity is enhanced by high vitamin D levels through the increased production of an antimicrobial peptide called cathelicidin, which keeps both bacterial and viral infections at bay. This is the exact reason that flu occurs almost exclusively in winter months in both hemispheres; blood levels of vitamin D are much lower in winter months (see my earlier posts)

In this research, placental cells were exposed to E. coli bacteria and then treated with vitamin D. The treatment reduced the risk of infection by about 50%.

Remember that there is also a dramatic reduction in the risk of breast and ovarian cancer among women with high sunlight exposure and high vitamin D levels; now we can add one more advantage of vitamin D to the list of benefits for female reproductive tissue.

[1] Liu, N. et al. Vitamin D Induces Innate Antibacterial Responses in Human Trophoblasts via an Intracrine Pathway. Biol Reprod 2008 Nov 12. [Epub ahead of print]

Vitamin D, U.S. needs how much? Why?

Video talks about the need for proper amounts of vitamin D. How and why?