Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Higher Risk of Early-Onset Dementia
The study identifies 15 factors tied to increased risk of early-onset dementia.
Forgetfulness and confusion, once considered normal signs of aging, are affecting more adults at the peak of their careers. Rates of early-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease among Americans younger than 65 have inexplicably doubled between 2013 and 2017, according to data from Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), a health insurance provider.
The study identifies vitamin D deficiency as one of the 15 adjustable lifestyle factors that appear to drive up a person’s early dementia risk. While the findings also highlight alcohol abuse and isolation, the surprising link between low vitamin D levels and early cognitive decline suggests a simple daily supplement may help the fight against this baffling rise. Approximately 35 percent of adults in the United States are vitamin D deficient.
Largest Study of Its Kind
The average age of someone between 30 and 64 years old living with either young-onset dementia or Alzheimer’s is 49, with women being disproportionately affected compared to men, according to the BCBS data.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/2813439
The large-scale study, published in JAMA Neurology, identified 15 lifestyle and health risk factors associated with early-onset dementia. The study analyzed information from more than 356,000 people younger than 65 whose data were in the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database and research initiative in the UK, between 2006 and 2010.
“This is the largest and most robust study of its kind ever conducted,” David Llewellyn of the University of Exeter said in a statement.
Risk Factors for Young-Onset Dementia
“Young-onset dementia has a very serious impact, because the people affected usually still have a job, children, and a busy life,” Stevie Hendriks from the department of psychiatry and neuropsychology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who was the lead author of the study, said in the statement. “The cause is often assumed to be genetic, but for many people we don’t actually know exactly what the cause is.”
Major contributing risk factors included alcohol abuse, stroke, and hearing impairment—all previously identified as risks for cognitive decline.
However, the study also identified some additional risk factors associated with early-onset dementia that have not been previously explored in depth, including vitamin D deficiency, high levels of inflammatory C-reactive proteins, specifically in women, orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure that happens when standing after sitting), and social isolation.
Vitamin D Reduced Dementia Risk by 40 Percent
Previous epidemiological studies have also linked vitamin D deficiency with an increased risk of dementia, Claire Sexton, senior director of scientific programs and outreach at the Alzheimer’s Association, told The Epoch Times.
However, relatively few studies have specifically examined risk factors for young-onset dementia, making Ms. Hendriks’s team’s study “a welcome addition to the literature,” Ms. Sexton said.
One relevant study,
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/dad2.12404
published in the Alzheimer’s Association’s journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, compared dementia onset between people who took vitamin D supplements and those who did not. The study included 12,388 Americans without a dementia diagnosis at baseline, with an average age of 71.
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Quick question: Is dementia more prevalent in Northern climates where there is less annual sunlight? (which causes the body to produce Vit D)
I should think that would be a key factor in making their case.