The value of physiologic vitamin D as a biomarker of dementia.
Drugs Today (Barc). 2011 Mar;47(3):223-31.
Buell JS, Tucker KL.
Harvard Clinical Research Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. kl.tucker at neu.edu.
Vitamin D has been investigated in association with cognitive function in healthy and multimorbid elderly patients. Whether higher physiologic concentrations of vitamin D may be neuroprotective is not yet known.
Epidemiological investigations have suggested a protective effect of physiologic vitamin D concentrations (circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D) on neurocognitive dysfunction and cerebrovascular disease.
Recent prospective studies have shown a beneficial association of vitamin D with a myriad of health conditions and suggest that vitamin D may be neuroprotective via vascular mechanisms.
Whether vitamin D concentrations are a useful indicator for the identification and clinical management of dementia remains to be determined.
On its own, physiological vitamin D status may be an important risk indicator for several comorbidities; however, further studies are required to determine if physiological vitamin D can be used as a biomarker in the clinical determination and disease management of dementia.
Copyright 2011 Prous Science, S.A.U. or its licensors. All rights reserved.
PMID: 21494700