Research has shown that people in their 70s who regularly take vitamin D supplements are less prone to dementia than those who do not.
According to the foreign press on the 2nd (local time), a joint research team from the University of Calgary in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK followed 12,388 elderly people with an average age of 71 for 10 years to investigate the correlation between vitamin D supplement intake and dementia. done.
As a result of the study, the diagnosis rate of dementia in group A (4637 people) who took vitamin D supplements was 40% lower than that in group B (7751 people) who did not take vitamin D supplements. Among 2696 (21.8%) elderly people with dementia over 10 years, 75% (2017 people) had never taken vitamin D supplements. Only 679 people (25%) took vitamin D supplements consistently from the beginning.
Vitamin D supplementation was more effective when taken before the onset of mild cognitive impairment, the pre-dementia stage. Mild cognitive impairment refers to a condition in which cognitive function, especially memory, is impaired, but the person is able to perform daily activities.
In addition, the effect of vitamin D supplement intake was more significant for women than for men and for the elderly without the mutant gene ‘APOEe4’, a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
Professor Zahinur Ismail said, “Taking vitamin D supplements before cognitive decline begins may be more effective in preventing dementia.”
The results of this study were published in the medical journal ‘Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring’.