Mainstream medicine offers little help when it comes to the prevention and treatment of memory loss and dementia. But — as I often report — research shows the B vitamins as well as vitamins D and E support mental function and memory as you get older. They may even help restore memory in people with dementia.
In fact, a new study links low vitamin D with accelerated rates of age-related memory loss.
Of course, low vitamin D is very common in older adults, especially African-Americans and Hispanics. In fact, low D is a much bigger problem than “Low-T” as we get older, yet we don’t see any splashy advertising campaigns about it, do we?
For the new study, researchers at Rutgers University and University of California at Davis assessed baseline vitamin D levels in 328 adults with an average age of 76 years.
They considered vitamin D levels between 20 and 50 nanograms/mL “adequate.” They called anything between 12 and 20 ng/mL “insufficient.” And anyone with numbers below 12 ng/mL had an outright “deficiency.”
Amazingly, everyone in the study had vitamin D below national standards. (And remember — independent researchers found these national standards for vitamin D are too low by a factor of ten.) Plus, 35 percent of participants had insufficient vitamin D levels. And 26 percent of the participants had an outright vitamin D deficiency.
The researchers also measured changes in cognitive function over five years using standardized tests.
Lower vitamin D levels = faster memory loss
At the study’s outset, 18 percent of the participants had dementia, 33 percent had mild cognitive impairment, and 50 percent had normal cognitive function.
As I would expect, men and women diagnosed with dementia at the study’s outset had lower vitamin D levels (16.2 ng/mL) compared to those with mild cognitive impairment (19.7 ng/mL). Furthermore, during the five-year follow-up period, the vitamin D-deficient group had greater rates of memory decline than the vitamin-D insufficient participants.
In other words, the more severe the vitamin D deficiency, the more rapid the memory decline.
The national disgrace of vitamin D deficiency
To be more specific, they linked low vitamin D with accelerated declines in episodic memory and executive functions — two cognitive abilities most strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Plus, remember, everyone at the study’s outset had vitamin D levels below the national standard.
So imagine what you can do with optimal vitamin D levels.
It’s truly a tragedy and failure of epic proportions in our healthcare system to see the huge dimensions of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, even using the national standards, which are inadequate to begin with. The fact that African-Americans and Hispanics are even lower is part of this national disgrace.
No wonder we have a growing epidemic of dementia in this country.
Natural Alzheimer’s solutions hiding in plain sight
The mainstream academic-government-industrial complex throws billions of taxpayer dollars pursuing the wrong theories and treatments for Alzheimer’s and dementia. But the natural solutions are hiding in plain sight.
Conclusive evidence shows we need much higher amounts of vitamin D daily. I recommend you get 10,000 IU of vitamin D daily as a liquid supplement. There just isn’t enough room to add enough vitamin D together with other vitamins in capsule formulations. And there’s certainly not enough room in those laughable, once-a-day multivitamins. Also, as a fat-soluble vitamin, it needs to be delivered in a healthy oil for the body to absorb it.
Vitamin D supplementation is important all year long. And especially at this time of year, when the sun just isn’t strong enough to prompt vitamin D production in the skin in most parts of the country. Vitamin D also helps support mood as we get into the darker, gloomier days of late fall and winter.
Also — make sure to eat nutritious foods like eggs, fish, and meat, which contain healthy amounts of vitamin D.
To support brain health, you can also take a daily B complex and supplements with 200 mg of vitamin E, as well as herbal remedies like berberine, and minerals like magnesium.
Source:
1. “Vitamin D Status and Rates of Cognitive Decline in a Multiethnic Cohort of Older Adults,” JAMA Neurol. 2015;72(11):1295-1303