Get Your Vitamin D And Keep Your Mind Agile
A study of 3,000 European men has indicated that vitamin D helps to keep us mentally agile in later life.
The research was carried out by David Lee and colleagues at the University of Manchester in the UK, and published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Reuters report that:
The researchers compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 European men aged 40 to 79 and found those with low vitamin D levels did more poorly on a task designed to test mental agility.
Differences in education levels, physical activity and depression levels were all taken into account, and David Lee explained that:
When we adjusted for all these other health and lifestyle factors we still found that there was a link between vitamin D and the cognitive outcome.
The researchers aren't sure why vitamin D appears to help older folk stay mentally fit, but believe it may be related to hormone activity or neuron production in the brain.
Vitamin D is produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight (without sun block). But, you can also get vitamin D by eating oily fish, and (to a smaller extent) eggs, or from fortified foods such as milk, breakfast cereal, orange juice, and margarine.
David Lee said that the study findings should not encourage people to spend excess time in the sun (due to the risk of skin cancer), but that supplementation was an easy and effective way to ensure an adequate vitamin D intake.
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Interesting to note that the Vitamin D levels of UK men in this study were 63nmol/l ± 31nmol/l
So the whole range was 32nmol/l the lowest to 94nmol/l the highest.
Sad isn't it that UK adults aren't aware that 137.5nmol/l is associated with least chronic disease incidence and we also achieve peak physical muscular performance at 55ng 137.5nmol/l
Most men in the UK would require over 5000iu/daily/D3 to achieve that natural optimum status. They would also have to import it from the online discount vitamin suppliers in the USA as our over the counter D3 is too low a dose to have any impact. If you take all your clothes off and lay naked in the midday sun for 20~30 minutes in the UK your skin would make 5000iu and that is the kind of amount your body needs daily.
Although of course every little helps, only 10% at most of D3 can come from diet. One portion of oily fish 400iu no one's going to eat 12 portions of oily fish daily. Milk in UK/EU is not fortified with D3 and contains only an unmeasurable trace.
ReplyTed, you speak some truth, good stuff. And I gota say, 20 mins under the sun is hardly excessive.
As for the "optimum" status, there's no need to achieve that in a hurry, but certainly something you should eventually aim for.
I'm not sure how low of a dose you can buy in the UK but we can get 1000UI Vit D capsules here. Taking those 2x a day (IF your levels are low) should be fine.
I've also seen some high potency 4000UI D3 supplements... but that's just an over kill.
ReplyFor once I am doing something healthy almost everyday. Hanging out - outside in the sun.
ReplyI live in southern CA so I certainly can get my D outside. I have read a lot about D lately & since I was not a good sunscreen person when I was younger & information on skin cancer was not "all out there", I definitely put it on now... BUT, I do try to get 15 minutes or so without it more often. I try to be careful but mindful.
ReplyI happen to live in Wisconsin, so we don't get nearly as much sunlight every day as we probably should, especially in the fall, winter, and spring. I do take a vitamin D supplement, but it seems to me that there are more and more conditions being linked to low vitamin D levels. I'm sort of curious...is it because we as a society are turning into an "indoor" society that never gets out in the sun? I think that could be a big part of things. Time to get off our butts and take a nice long walk in the sunshine!
ReplyI would seriously like to know where these California folks expect the rest of us to actually come across these rays of sunshine that y'all are claiming we should get every day???? I live in Europe. We get weeks and months at a time with little to no sunshine. I repeat: there is no sunshine to be had for long periods of the year!!!
I take a Vitamin D3 supplement. Because there isn't any sunshine here.
And when I used to live in sunny central California, I turned pink in 15 minutes, and red in 20 minutes, in the sunshine. I can't imagine going out every day to get my "prescribed" allotment of daily sunshine. I'd have skin cancer by now.
Some of us don't have sunshine available to us. Some of us, who might be lucky enough to have regular sunshine available, burn easily.
Quit with the "all you need is 20 minutes daily in the sunshine" advice. I'm tired of hearing it.
Thanks for listening to my rant. I'll go take my supplements now.
ReplyIf you are interested in vitamin D you should take a look at www.vitaminD3world.com The site has good summaries of the data and offers a new formulation of vitamin D in a micro-pill formulation. The pills have been formulated with cellulose which absorbs water very quickly. This ensures that the pill breaks up very quickly to provide for maximum absorption. The micro pill is tiny and tasteless. Many vitamin D pills on the market have very poor dissolution properties resulting in poor absorption.
ReplyThe site also offers to supply customers with a free supply of 400IU for their children and it also has a good newsletter.
best regards
Toby Lee