New Study Says This Can Help Prevent Dementia (Especially For Women)

This critical vitamin really does it all!

Kass

Mar 2, 2023 - 21:02

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New Study Says This Can Help Prevent Dementia (Especially For Women)

mbg Supplement Editor

By Morgan Chamberlain

mbg Supplement Editor

Morgan Chamberlain is a supplement editor at mindbodygreen. She graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science degree in magazine journalism and a minor in nutrition.

Image by Studio Firma / Stocksy

March 2, 2023

New research indicates that one essential vitamin could make all the difference in cognitive decline and brain longevity: Vitamin D.

According to a new observational study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia this week, older adults that increased their vitamin D intake were 40% less likely to develop dementia. The study also learned quite a bit about how individual factors (e.g., demographics, genetics, behavior) play into the equation.

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The dementia study design.

Researchers evaluated the effects of vitamin D exposure influenced dementia incidence in 12,388 older adults (average age 71) from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) dataset.

All participants were dementia-free at the baseline evaluation and given one of the following cognitive diagnoses:

Normal cognitionMild cognitive impairment (MCI)

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Additionally, participants were split up into a vitamin-D-exposed group (i.e., individuals that took one of three types of vitamin D supplements—D2, D3, or a combination of vitamin D and calcium—before the baseline exam) and a non-exposed group (i.e., individuals that did not increase their vitamin D intake via supplementation throughout the study).

Can vitamin D exposure predict cognitive decline outcomes?

When looking at demographics, genetics, and myriad other factors, the influence of vitamin D exposure on dementia incidence and survival varied from group to group in interesting ways.

Vitamin D exposure was associated with 40% lower dementia incidence rate than no exposure.The five-year survival rate for the vitamin D exposure group was also 15% higher than no exposure.Of the participants that developed dementia over ten years, 75% had no exposure to vitamin D prior to their diagnosis. Women were at higher risk of dementia than men, but also responded to increased vitamin D intake 23% better (females with vitamin D exposure had 49% lower incidence rate than females with no exposure).Unsurprisingly, participants with normal cognition at baseline had lower dementia incidence rate than participants with MCI. However, individuals with MCI in the vitamin D exposure group still had 33% lower incidence than participants with MCI that had no exposure.The rate was the same in vitamin D-exposed carriers of the APOE ε4 gene (a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease)—their dementia incidence was 33% lower than carriers that had no exposure.

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Overall, increased vitamin D intake was found to have potential for dementia prevention, particularly before the onset of cognitive decline.