Vitamin D Levels and the Risk of Cognitive Decline in Chinese Elderly People: the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci (2016) doi: 10.1093/gerona/glw128, published online: July, 2016
- Poor cognition associated with low vitamin D in elderly (Asians now too) – meta-analysis March 2016
- Brain (Alzheimer’s) worked better with Vitamin D intervention – meta-analysis July 2013
VitaminDWiki items in both Intervention AND Cognitive catgories
- APOE-04 Alzheimer’s progression slowed up by Omega-3 – RCT Aug 2024
- Senior cognition improved in 4 ways by Vitamin D (50,000 IU weekly for 8 weeks) – Sept 2023
- Every schizophrenia measure was improved when vitamin D levels were normalized – June 2021
- Mild cognitive decline reversed by a year of just 800 IU Vitamin D daily – RCT Dec 2020
- Methadone cognition improved by 50,000 IU of vitamin D every 2 weeks – RCT May 2019
- Schizophrenia reduced by biweekly 50,000 IU Vitamin D and probiotics – RCT Feb 2019
- Cognitive function of adult women improved in 3 months of 50,000 IU weekly Vitamin D – Jan 2019
- Amyloid brain plaque both prevented and removed by high vitamin D (in mice) – Aug 2018
- Cognition improved a tiny amount with 400 IU of vitamin D (not a surprise) – RCT Oct 2018
- 9,000 dollar prize for RCT which found cognition improved after taking 4,000 IU of Vitamin D for 18 weeks – May 2018
- Senior cognition improved somewhat by 4,000 IU of Vitamin D (if initially less than 30 ng) – RCT April 2017
- Vitamin D and Glutamine reduced Trauma Center deaths by half – Matthews March 2017
- Mental health intervention trials using enough vitamin D for long enough found benefits – Jan 2017
- Visual memory improved a bit by vitamin D if start with less than 30 ng – RCT Jan 2017
- Cognition of Alzheimer’s patients improved by daily 4,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT Jan 2015
- 2,000 IU of vitamin D reduced schizophrenia chance by 77 percent (male infants) - 2004
- Better memory if take lots of vitamin D (senior rats) – May 2015
- Severe Alzheimer's delayed by 1 year with vitamin D intervention – March 2014
- Vitamin D aided progesterone in reducing traumatic brain injury – RCT Dec 2012
- Age-related cognitive decline in rats mitigated by Vitamin D intervention – RCT Oct 2012
David B. Matchar1,2, Choy-Lye Chei1,3, Zhao-Xue Yin4, Victoria Koh1, Bibhas Chakraborty5, Xiao-Ming Shi4 and Yi Zeng6,7
1 Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
2 Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina.
3 Department of Public Health Medicines, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
4 Division of Non-Communicable Disease Control and Community Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
5 Centre for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
6 Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and the Geriatric Division of School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
7 Center for Healthy Aging and Development Studies, National School of Development, Raissun Institute for Advanced Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Address correspondence to David B. Matchar, MD, Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, 8 College Road Singapore 169857. E-mail: david.matchar at duke-nus.edu.sg.
Background: Vitamin D has a neuroprotective function, potentially important for the prevention of cognitive decline. Prospective studies from Western countries support an association between lower vitamin D level and future cognitive decline in elderly people. No prospective study has examined this association in Asia.
Methods: This community-based cohort study of elderly people in China follows 1,202 cognitively intact adults aged =60 years for a mean duration of 2 years. Plasma vitamin D level was measured at the baseline. Cognitive state of participants was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Cognitive impairment was defined as an MMSE score <18. Cognitive decline was defined as =3 points decline from baseline. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the association between quartiles of vitamin D levels with cognitive decline and incidence of cognitive impairment.
Results: Participants with low vitamin D level had an increased risk of cognitive decline. Compared with the highest quartile of vitamin D levels,
the multivariable odds ratios (ORs; 95% confidence interval) for cognitive decline were
2.1 (1.3–3.4) for the second highest quartile,
- 2.2 (1.4–3.6) for the third highest quartile, and
- 2.0 (1.2–3.3) for the lowest quartile.
The multivariable ORs of incident cognitive impairment for the second highest, third highest, and lowest versus highest quartiles of vitamin D levels were
- 1.9 (0.9–4.1),
- 2.6 (1.2–5.6), and
- 3.2 (1.5–6.6), respectively.
Conclusions: This first follow-up study of elderly people, including the oldest-old, in Asia shows that low vitamin D levels were associated with increased risk of subsequent cognitive decline and impairment.