Link between vitamin D, dementia risk confirmed (sciencedaily)

[DocwillCuNow]

From the "not this s**t again arena. Release the hounds.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140806161659.htm

Link between vitamin D, dementia risk confirmed
Date:
August 6, 2014
Source:
University of Exeter
Summary:
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in older people, according to the most robust study of its kind ever conducted. An international team found that study participants who were severely vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

An international team, led by Dr David Llewellyn at the University of Exeter Medical School, found that study participants who were severely Vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

The team studied elderly Americans who took part in the Cardiovascular Health Study. They discovered that adults in the study who were moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 per cent increased risk of developing dementia of any kind, and the risk increased to 125 per cent in those who were severely deficient.

Similar results were recorded for Alzheimer's disease, with the moderately deficient group 69 per cent more likely to develop this type of dementia, jumping to a 122 per cent increased risk for those severely deficient.

[cbayer]

1. Here is the link.

https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/1300

This actually looks like a good study and is being published by a very reputable journal.

[Laelth]

2. For clarity: It's Vitamin D deficiency that's the problem.

The study suggests Vitamin D deficiency is linked to increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's.

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

-Laelth

[DocwillCuNow]

3. Funny how in a time when everything is "enriched" beyond belief, when you can't find some

"manufactured" food that doesn't have a laundry list of added fortifications..... there is still the potential for D deficiency. I would recommend full spectrum light bulbs for these people in addition to the 50,000 mg shots they give the elderly, my mom included. Full spectrum light bulbs can help mimimize the winter blues, or help alleviate depression, whatever one wishes to call it.

[BlueJazz]

4. Good post. Thanks !

[sendero]

6. Well now..

.. which do you want, melanoma or dementia? Because according to the medical professions, you shouldn't be exposed to sunlight at all.

[Half-Century Man]

12. Indirect sunlight and sun block

Take the grandparents for a walk in the park. Teaching your kids how to be kind to ancestors now, pays off later.

[tridim]

15. Most sunblock blocks UVB radiation, which turns off your skin's D-making ability.

Just a heads up.

[Half-Century Man]

17. Okay, Just going by what my dr told me, on two different occasions I'll grant you.

A, I need Vit-D, go be in the sunshine; B, wear sunblock, pasty people burn easily.

So modify my earlier post to walk down dapple shadowed lanes.

[tridim]

14. I definintely want the sunlight, UVB in particular.

Most medical professionals are in it for the money, not the truth. Please don't avoid the sun!

[Hekate]

41. Some of us are shall we say melanin deficient. Mr Sun is not our friend. nt

[laundry_queen]

45. As a fellow melanin deficient person

on the bright side - we don't need as much time in the sun to produce vitamin D. I find I can hang out in the sun for 10-15 minutes at a time with no problems, so I make a point of trying to do that on sunny days in the summer. In the winter, for me, it's pointless since I'm so far north I was told that being out in the sun between Sept-May won't make you any vitamin D anyway because of the angle of the sun. But when I was told by my doctor that I had vit D deficiency, I was told 10-15 minutes in the sun in the summer was a good idea.

I still have to be careful - a few weeks ago I wasn't paying attention as I had been sitting on a covered deck at my parents' lake lot...my dad got up to do some yard work and I went with him to help and to chat. I lost track of time. I was out there for 1/2 hr-45 minutes. I burned.

[DocwillCuNow]

52. You can goto Amazon and read up on astaxanthin, you will find some of the

unsolicited personal experiences are worth a look. How did you get to be a laundry queen? I'm not even sure what that is....

[laundry_queen]

53. lol

I have 4 kids. I made up the username on a day when I was tackling a mountain of laundry. Actually at the time I only had 3 kids...I guess I like laundry.

BTW thanks, I'll go look up some stuff on amazon.

[DocwillCuNow]

54. Still I wonder, did you make it to the summit?? One would hope so, if not at least you can say

you tried.

[laundry_queen]

55. Still climbing

It never ends. My washing machine is going as we speak, LOL. With 5 beds (my bed takes 2 loads), and 5 of us and our clothing, and a washable sofa and chair slipcovers (being washed at this moment - takes 3 loads), and washable throw rugs that the dog keeps peeing on, and the continuous pile of rags (I clean relatives' houses money and also aforementioned dog) and kids that keep leaving wet towels on the floor, I don't think I'll get to the bottom until my children move out, LOL. Thank god I have a tankless water heater and a front loader so my water and gas bills aren't too bad.

At least now, the teens do their own laundry. The downside - they never remember to move their clothes OUT of the washer.

/laundrytalk

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. False dichotomy.

It's not either or.

1) It's the brightness of light and the duration, not the UV content, that prevents Seasonal Affective Disorder.

2) You can take large doses of Vitamin D supplements. I take 5,000 IU per day and limit my sun exposure. Note, it is IU, not mg (milligrams) or even mcg (micrograms) as some idiot poster posted above.

[DocwillCuNow]

37. Now you have opened up a can of worms. It's like this, sunlight produces vitamin D which protects

you from melanoma. Sunscreen inhibits this process. The smart money either uses a sunscreen with green tea extract or takes astaxanthin. I will not belabor this substance, I will however say that I purchase most of my stuff on Amazon, contrary to the thinking of a few here. If you read a few of the "personal anecdotes" at Amazon you will find some persons who "believe" that it stops them from burning.... no not that kind of burning, the sunshine kind. Reading the personal reviews at Amazon is not a way to judge a substance, it is a good way to get an idea of what might be possible in a non toxic and health promoting way.

http://www.amazon.com/Nutrex-Hawaii-Bioastin-Hawaiin-Astaxanthin/dp/B006X1DCVO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407448625&sr=8-2&keywords=astaxanthin

Clip: Raw Astaxanthin is primarily grown in four areas: Hawaii (through Cyanotech), Israel (through Algatech), Mexico (through Piveg), and Sweden (through Fuji Health Science). Almost all neutraceutical companies that sell Astaxanthin acquire their Astaxanthin from one of these four suppliers.

Clip: One of the other intriguing things that inspired me to buy this supplement was its almost miraculous skin protection from the sun. Before buying I researched clinical studies available online and I was quite impressed. The stats seemed incontrovertible. After 10 months of use I can contribute first hand experience. I am retired. After 40 years I recently moved from sunny southern California, to sunny and off the charts hot Phoenix Arizona. I arrived here in April last year at the very beginning of the traditionally brutally hot Phoenix summer.

In CA I rode a bicycle a minimum of 7 miles per day every day of the week for overall health benefits and enjoyment. By the time I arrived here though my strength and stamina had increased to the point where I was riding a minimum of 15 miles per day every day. The sun here is relentless and daily summer temps averaged 112 and above! The increased intensity of the sun here compared to CA (irrespective of temps) became quite obvious and within weeks of riding here I realized I was putting my skin more at risk than ever before.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. It's NOT 50,000 mg. It's important to get your facts straight about stuff like this.

Get your facts straight when dealing with medical matters. It's important.

Vitamin D is measured in IU which is International Units, not mg (milligrams). 1 (one) mcg (micrograms) = 40 IU. One milligram has 1,000 micrograms.

US RDA for over 70 years old is 800 IU per day. I'm not near that, but I take 5,000 IU per day because it is beneficial and no adverse effects have been found for people on 10,000 IU per day. People have accidentally had doses of 100,000 IU with no ill effect. 50,000 IU shots are conceivable but I'm skeptical. However, 50,000 mg shots are inconceivable since that would be 50 million mcg or 2 billion IU (2,000,000,000 IU).

Get the facts:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
Dr. Andrew Weil recommends 2,000 IU per day for adults:
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02812/vitamin-d

[tammywammy]

23. I was severely vitamin D deficient

A couple of years ago. I took 50,000IU of vitamin D-2 (once a week for 12 weeks) and was retested and that brought my level back up to acceptable. Last year my level was still fine with no additional supplement.

I'm a very fair skinned red head, I always wear sunblock.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Thanks. That makes more sense. 50,000 IU / wk = 7,000 IU per day. nt

[SidDithers]

67. +1...nt

Sid

[madokie]

5. Vitamin D infused milk drinker here

plus I'm always on the take for learning something new, researching interests etc.

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Association is not causality.

People who get out in the sun more may be more active, i.e. they may be less likely to have dementia.

On a related note, up until 1960, people took cod liver oil every day. It had vitamin D, A and omega-3-fatty acids. In the 1960s, we dropped the cod liver oil and started drinking Vit D fortified milk. Could part of the reason for our recent increase in heart disease be the loss of the omega-3-fatty acids from our daily regimen? Cod liver oil was used by Europeans for hundreds of years. The Norse used it as long as a 1000 years ago to prevent rickets from their low winter sunlight.

Nowadays, you have to worry about toxins in fish liver, so be careful if you decide, as I have, to give cod liver oil a try again.

Now, for a possible biochemical explanation of why low Vit D might cause dementia. Low Vit D leads to elevate parathyroid hormone which causes you to take calcium from your bones and excrete it in the urine. That extra calcium circulating in the blood stream has been shown to speed up the formation of coronary artery disease and hardening of the other arteries, presumably by irritating the linings of the blood veseels. So, low Vit D can contribute to stroke which can contribute to dementia. But the study does not prove this, just tends to confirm this.

Also, low Vit D and elevated PTH weaken the bones and contributes to osteoporosis.

[stevenleser]

9. The peer review process generally ferrets out studies that do not adequately address other

potential causes like that. Not always though.

It would be interesting to see the full study to see how they controlled for other potential causes.

[stevenleser]

11. Here is the link for the full study. Apparently they did NOT control/address exercise/activity

http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2014/08/06/WNL.0000000000000755.full.pdf+html

the closest they came was to address BMI.

Great point.

[Dreamer Tatum]

34. Always amused at how often people drag out this old saw

as if researchers have never, ever drawn a distinction between causation and correlation, and
as if causal relationships haven't been elegantly studied for decades.

[newfie11]

8. Adele Davis was/is ridiculed

But many of the things she said were true.
I'm not here to convince anyone, just saying!

[Granny M]

13. Jaysus, I haven't heard that name in decades.

My Mom was a big fan, or at least she'd go on periodic Adelle Davis health kicks, and we would be forced to drink a blended concoction of orange juice and yeast and God-knows-what else for breakfast every day. I remember it was awful, at least to our childish taste buds. Bless Mom for trying, at least.

[FailureToCommunicate]

18. Hey, I'm a big fan of Davis!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. That's Angela Davis, not Adelle Davis

Huge difference in careers.

Big difference in appearance.

Adelle Davis:

[FailureToCommunicate]

28. It's an old chuckle from the 60's: "If you don't know the difference between Angela

Davis and Adelle Davis...there can never be an "us"

(See? You passed! )

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. Ok, you made me chuckle ^^ nt

[DocwillCuNow]

38. Ok, you hurt my feelings, as if some doctor is going to give a person 50,000mg shots. I expect

an apology in the mail asap.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

39. No.

[DocwillCuNow]

43. That's rude.

[packman]

10. Both my cardiologist and nephrologist

recommended and put me on 2 daily 2,000 units VitD gel pills. Inexpensive and over-the-counter . No big deal in taking them. The cardiologist for the heart function, the kidney doc for calcium aspect cited above. Now it appears that it could stave off dementia and Alzheimer makes it even more palatable. Plus the pills avoids sun exposure I have to be careful of.

[malaise]

16. Eat fish

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/22/fish-oil-brain-health/4719231/
<snip>
A diet rich in fish has been touted as a way to improve brain health, but research results on its effectiveness have been mixed.

A study out Wednesday found older women with the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil, had better preservation of their brain as they aged than those with the lowest levels, which might mean they would maintain better brain function for an extra year or two.

For the latest study, Pottala and colleagues looked at the omega-3 fatty acids levels in the red blood cells of 1,111 women who participated in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study. The women had MRI scans eight years after the study began to measure their brain volume. They were an average of 78 years old. The study was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

-- Those with the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their red blood cells had a 2.7% larger volume in the hippocampus portion of the brain compared with those with the lowest levels of omega-3 fatty acids. The hippocampus plays an important role in memory and is usually one of the areas affected early in the dementia process, Pottala says.

Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, says there have been conflicting reports on this topic but this latest research "would suggest there is a positive relationship between omega-3 fatty acid-rich diets and the preservation of brain volume in aging. The take-home message is to eat a heart-healthy diet that includes fish. I'd also recommend physical exercise and engagement in intellectual activity."

[MoonRiver]

19. A deficiency in VitD has also been clinically associated with greater risk for breast cancer. n/t

[FailureToCommunicate]

20. A 'Mediterranean diet' includes LOTS of Vitamin D among other health benefits...

and tastes great too!

http://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/news-detail/10949/Doctors-urge-governments-to-consider-the-benefits-of-Mediterranean-diet-ahead-of-G8-dementia-summit/

Of course the above article leaves out mentioning one aspect of the Mediterranean diet OFTEN left off the list: hard labor. The real and original people studied for their longevity had as part of their "diet" working long days in the out of doors...subsistance farming, goat herding, fishing and such.

[CBGLuthier]

26. I tried Vitamin D supplements and after three days I was contemplating murdering everyone I know

including myself. The reaction was the same as when an idiot doctor put me on Prozac 20 years ago. Stupid-ass doctor did not bother to figure out I am moderately bipolar, not just depressed, and Prozac is very bad for bipolar.

So I knocked that shit off and started walking every day and getting plenty of sunshine. Fortunately I am dark skinned so no real risk of melanoma for me. I never use sunblock and I never burn. My mood is mostly stable except for every so often and I just wait it out and avoid people during those times.

Everyone is not the same and assumptions about our needs can be deadly.

[tridim]

29. You have to take K2 with D3 supplements.

And it's also a good idea to take calcium citrate and magnesium glycinate as well. They all work together and are very important for cell metabolism.

Again, doctors don't know much about this stuff because most of them are incurious and by-the-book (which is out of date and wrong).

[CBGLuthier]

31. Or I could just get all the sunshine I need , eat healthy, and leave supplements alone.

Which is my personal plan. Worked so far and will continue to work.

[tridim]

33. That's ideal, but it is impossible get enough magnesium through diet alone.

And you get almost no K2 unless you eat Japanese fermented natto, from which the K2 supplements are derived.

I tried the diet thing for decades and I couldn't get enough of the right nutrients without supplements.

Good luck!

[Trillo]

44. FYI, there is alternative thinking on the calcium supplements.

I've observed swelling when taking it, not just in me either. Magnesium and Boron allegedly keeps your existing calcium in the bones and from flowing into cells.

Boron deficiency causes the parathyroids to become overactive, releasing too much parathyroid hormone which raises the blood level of calcium by releasing calcium from bones and teeth. This then leads to osteoarthritis and other forms of arthritis, osteoporosis and tooth decay. With advancing age high blood levels of calcium lead to calcification of soft tissues causing muscle contractions and stiffness; calcification of endocrine glands, especially the pineal gland and the ovaries; arteriosclerosis, kidney stones, and calcification of the kidneys ultimately leading to kidney failure. Boron deficiency combined with magnesium deficiency is especially damaging to the bones and teeth.

So you hear of brittle bones in elderly folks, their teeth start rotting? Makes so much direct sense to supplement with calcium. Obvious. DUH! But if the conditions causing the calcium to circulate in cells exists, then that calcium maybe ain't going where it's supposed to.

This is from the same link:

"While in good health and especially in younger years a calcium -
magnesium ratio of 2 : 1 is normal and beneficial and supplied with a
good diet. But with increasing age, boron deficiency and resulting
disease conditions we need progressively less calcium and more
magnesium.

[tridim]

47. Thanks for the info. I take calcium very rarely since I drink lots of whole milk.

At least for me Magnesium is essential. It evens out my entire being.

[laundry_queen]

46. Wow!

I've been vit d deficient off and on for awhile, and I cannot take higher doses of it because of what you say - I get an intense reaction from it where I can't sleep, I feel like my skin is crawling, I get panic attacks. I even asked my doctor about it and he had never heard of anyone having a reaction to vitamin d. Interesting that you have a similar experience.

I try to get some sun too instead of taking a pill, but I live pretty far north and was told that between September and May the sun is too far away to trigger vit D production in the skin. So, I get 10-15 minutes at a time in the summer. In the winter I do take lower doses of vit D. I find I also get leg cramps with vit D (even when I add in calcium, potassium and magnesium) so I have to be careful.

[justiceischeap]

27. Vitamin D taker here

I was extremely Vitamin D deficient. When I started taking it, I'd say it took a couple of months, but my almost daily low-level headaches went away. I'm a fair-skinned (pasty) person, so being in the sun is not a good idea for me and I also found my thoughts less scattered.

[whatchamacallit]

30. But brilliant woo fighters told me supplements are anti scientific bullshit... What to do?

[tammywammy]

32. That's not what they've said at all.

Supplements are good for deficiencies. If you're not deficient then there's no benefit from taking extra vitamins. Even this article is about a study of people who were vitamin D deficient.

[SidDithers]

35. Don't confuse 'em with facts...

It makes it harder for them to live happily in wooville.

Sid

[Hekate]

40. Does not answer the question of how much per day you should take as a supplement.

I'm at risk for skin cancer, so I don't "do" sunlight. The issue of supplements is important to people like me.

[flamingdem]

42. I had a level of 25 started taking 2-3000 per day and

now have a level of 45.

So that's an idea of how much to take to move up. Not really wanting to go higher in amounts so I'll supplement with sunshine.

You need to be tested since everyone is a little different.

[Hekate]

49. thanks. I've been taking 2,000 IU per day when I remember. Think I'll be more consistent!

[DocwillCuNow]

64. I am not kidding you, see this post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5359961

Or if you only like stuff from the medical literature:

J Agric Food Chem. 2013 Apr 24;61(16):3842-51. doi: 10.1021/jf304609j. Epub 2013 Apr 16.
Effective inhibition of skin cancer, tyrosinase, and antioxidative properties by astaxanthin and astaxanthin esters from the green alga Haematococcus pluvialis.
Rao AR1, Sindhuja HN, Dharmesh SM, Sankar KU, Sarada R, Ravishankar GA.
Author information
Abstract

Astaxanthin mono- (AXME) and diesters (AXDE) were characterized and examined for anticancer potency with total carotenoids (TC) and astaxanthin (AX) against UV-7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced skin cancer model in rat.

At 200 ?g/kg bw, AXDE and AXME reduced UV-DMBA-induced tumor incidences up to 96 and 88%, respectively, when compared to AX (66%) and TC (85%). UV-DMBA has been known to generate high levels of free radicals and tyrosinase enzyme, leading to characteristic symptoms of skin pigmentation and tumor initiation.

Intriguingly, ~7-fold increase in tyrosinase and 10-fold decrease in antioxidant levels were normalized by AXDE and AXME as opposed to only ~1.4-2.2-fold by AX and TC, respectively. This result together with the appearance of 72 and 58 ng/mL of retinol in the serum of respective AXE-treated (AXDE + AXME) and AX-treated animals suggested that better anticancer potency of AXEs could be due to increased bioavailability.

PMID:
23473626
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[hedgehog]

48. Some further info from the article:

"The study also found evidence that there is a threshold level of Vitamin D circulating in the bloodstream below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease increases. The team had previously hypothesized that this might lie in the region of 25-50 nmol/L, and their new findings confirm that vitamin D levels above 50 nmol/L are most strongly associated with good brain health."

For those of you who just have a lab number, Vitamin D serum levels are also measured in ng/ml, so yo need to check the units.

"To convert a test result measured in nmol/l to one measured in ng/ml, divide the nmol/l number by 2.5. For example, 50 nmol/l is the same as 20 ng/ml (50÷2.5)"

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/testing-for-vitamin-d/


The numbers referred to in the article seem to be in line with current recommendations:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/


Those who are ranting about all you need is sunshine -

- Americans with darker skin have difficulties getting enough sun - they aren't outside enough and many live in Northern areas with very limited winter sunshine. The frequently overcast around some areas are also a problem.

- My autoimmune disease responds well to a high level of Vitamin D, but exposure to sunlight is a sure way to trigger a flare. Add to that the annual trip to the dermatologist to have the early signs of skin cancer removed. I take OTC Vitamin D to maintain my health,

[DocwillCuNow]

51. A vampire in our midst.... who knew?? n/t

[hedgehog]

56. You speak the truth more than you know - I can't be in direct sunlight without burning!

[DocwillCuNow]

57. Let me help you with that if you don't mind....

http://www.cyanotech.com/pdfs/bioastin/batl35.pdf

http://www.cyanotech.com/pdfs/bioastin/batl32.pdf

Please note there is nothing for sale there, these are clinical papers explaining the sunburn protection of this particular antioxidant.

The rest of the laundry list of protective effects lives here: http://www.cyanotech.com/bioastin/library.html

[hedgehog]

58. As it happens, direct sunlight tends to leave me with migraine as well,

but thanks for thinking of me!

Fortunately, I love living under the cloudy skies of the Great Lakes.

[DocwillCuNow]

59. Used to live not far from Lake Erie, miss it dearly. n/t

[hedgehog]

60. My daughter went to ESF in Syracuse - kids from NYC could not believe that people actually

chose to live in an area with so many days of gray skies. The kids from Central and Western New York couldn't figure out what they were talking about.


My fondest memory of growing up in Buffalo - the February day that the newspaper announced that we had seen the sun for the first time since an overcast day in November - and I hadn't noticed!

[DocwillCuNow]

61. When it's what you grow up with, it is the normal of your life. I actually miss the gray skies now

that you mention it. They were the skies of my youth.

[hedgehog]

62. On the plus side - our summers are filled with amazing skies - cumulus clouds piled higher than you

can imagine. It makes for incredible sunsets.

[DocwillCuNow]

63. Ever go down to Angola, Derby or Lake Shore to see the ice piling up on the shore?

[hedgehog]

65. No, but I do recall the annual arguement about when the boom on the City of Buffalo water intake

should be taken out of the river.


and that the way to tell the Spring is near is when the ice fishermen are rescued off a floe in the Lake!

[DocwillCuNow]

66. I'll bet they "bearly" make it sometimes.... (arctic thaw ref) nt

[JCMach1]

50. It comes down to the fact we weren't meant to stay inside 24-7