A shortage of vitamin D can lead to Parkinson’s disease and mental decline in old age, new research suggests. One 30-year study of 3,000 people revealed a three-fold higher risk of developing Parkinson’s in those with low blood levels of vitamin D.
A separate investigation found that low vitamin D intake was associated with a 60 per cent greater chance of suffering seriously impaired mental faculties later in life.
Both studies, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, add to evidence of the vitamin’s importance. Vitamin D is mainly generated by the action of sunlight on the skin. As people age their skin becomes less able to produce it.
Vitamin D is mainly generated by the action of sunlight on the skin. However, as people age their skin becomes less able to produce it.
Research suggests that, as well as strengthening bones, the vitamin also protects against cancers, heart disease and diabetes.
Vitamin D
Most people get the majority of their vitamin D from exposure to sunlight or by dietary supplements; fortified foods such as milk and packaged cereals are a minor source. Only a few foods in nature contain substantial amounts of vitamin D, such as salmon and tuna.
The body’s ability to produce vitamin D using UV-B radiation from the sun decreases with age, making older individuals at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency.
“We found that vitamin D insufficiency may have a unique association with Parkinson’s, which is intriguing and warrants further investigation,” the study says.
The connection could come partly because patients with Parkinson’s have mobility problems and are seldom exposed to the sun, or because low vitamin D levels are in some way related to the genesis or progression of the disease.
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September 18th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
“Two glasses of milk each day will help [you] lose weight,” reported the Daily Express. The newspaper said that “adults who drank the most milk – almost two glasses a day – and had the highest vitamin D and calcium levels, lost an average of almost 12lb after two years.”
The story is based on research that looked at vitamin D and calcium levels in overweight people who were taking part in a dietary trial. The participants were assigned one of three diets: low fat, Mediterranean or low carbohydrate. The researchers looked at whether there was an association between calcium in the diet, the level of vitamin D in the blood and subsequent weight loss. They found that higher vitamin D and calcium levels were associated with greater weight loss over the two-year trial.
However, the study was not designed to compare dietary dairy consumption with an alternative diet, and the participants in each group were neither restricted in the amount of dairy they could eat nor required to eat a minimum amount of dairy. This limits the conclusions that can be drawn from the research. Also, the study did not look at how many calories the participants consumed overall or how much exercise they did.
Dairy products are a good source of vitamin D and calcium and these are important nutrients. However, this study doesn’t offer enough evidence to suggest that dairy has a direct effect on weight loss.
September 19th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
New leaflets are to be handed out urging people to make sure they get enough vitamin D.
Doctors are concerned people in Scotland are not getting enough of the vitamin from sunlight and are not topping up their levels with a healthy diet.
There is increasing evidence that a lack of vitamin D could be linked to cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Doctors are also concerned about a rise in the bone disease rickets.
Rickets is a rare condition which causes the softening and weakening of bones in children.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women are particularly at risk of vitamin D deficiency, along with children under five, the elderly, the housebound and people with darker skin.
About 10 to 15 minutes a day of sunshine is considered safe.
But in Scotland the sun is only strong enough to provide vitamin D between April and September.
If the body’s reserves of vitamin D run out during the winter, they need to be topped up from oily fish, eggs, meat or a supplement.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “We know that in Scotland the winter sun is not strong enough to provide the minimum vitamin D needed for health – especially for those with darker skin.
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
A new study has found that over-activation of a single protein may shut down the brain-protecting effects of a molecule and increases the likeliness of the most common form of Parkinson’s disease.
Johns Hopkins scientists found this mechanism that may lead to important new targets for drugs already known to inhibit it, thus controlling symptoms of the disorder.
Previous research demonstrated that a protein called parkin protects brain cells by ‘tagging’ certain toxic elements that are then destroyed naturally.
However, the results of the new study have indicated that an over-activation of a protein called c-Abl- can shut down the activity of parkin and contribute to a build-up of toxic proteins that kill brain cells and enables the progression of PD.
C-Abl contributes to the regulation of cell death and is implicated in a host of diseases. It has already proven to be a target for certain types of cancer-killing drugs, such as imatinib (Gleevec) said Ted Dawson.
“Our new appreciation of c-Abl’s role in sporadic PD suggests that we can give brain-permeable inhibitors of c-Abl to maintain parkin’s normal protective function.
“The testing of these already approved, well-tolerated drugs for a new use – as a neuro-protective treatment for PD – is a potentially exciting therapeutic arc that should be pursued,” said Dawson.
The researchers first used a test called the Western blot to label certain proteins in neuron-like human cells in culture. They could see that c-Abl shut down the activity of parkin by measuring the levels of chemical tags on proteins that, in a healthy system, are marked for destruction.
These “garbage” proteins, when overabundant, have been shown previously by Dawson’s lab to be selectively toxic to neurons. When c-Abl was active, parkin’s ability to tag those proteins was significantly decreased.
Next, using a mouse, which had been given drugs, that cause Parkinson’s-like traits, the team proved that when c-Abl is activated, parkin’s function shuts down and as a result, garbage proteins accumulate and lead to a significant loss of neurons.
Finally, the scientists turned to human brain tissue to look for evidence that c-Abl are a major regulator of parkin function. By comparing brain tissue of patients who died with Parkinson’s disease with those who died of other causes, they established that when c-Abl shuts down Parkin, the “garbage” proteins accumulate and result is the death of neurons.
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
October 12th, 2010 at 7:53 am
A special summit to examine the possible links between multiple sclerosis (MS) and vitamin D which a schoolboy helped to organise is being held on Tuesday.
Ryan McLaughlin, 15, will welcome Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon to the conference in Clydebank, where she is to give a keynote speech.
The event will bring together academics from across the world to consider the possible links between vitamin D deficiency and various health problems, including MS.
It is taking place after Ryan, who watched his mother Kirsten struggle with MS, launched his Shine on Scotland campaign. The teenager has already taken a petition on the issue to the Scottish Parliament.
He said: “It’s fantastic that all of these very important and very busy people have taken the time to come to Glasgow and consider the issues raised by my campaign.”
Vitamin D can be created naturally in the body by exposure to the sun but in Scotland there is only enough sunlight of the right UVB wavelength to create vitamin D in the required manner for about half the year.