Does high dose vitamin D supplementation enhance cognition?: A randomized trial in healthy adults
Experimental Gerontology, online 4 February 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2017.01.019
Jacqueline A Pettersen, Northern Medical Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9, Canada. pettersj at unbc.ca
Highlights
- Novel trial of high versus low dose vitamin D3 on multiple cognitive domains
- High dose vitamin D (4000 IU/d) improved nonverbal (visual) memory after 18 weeks.
- 25(OH)D levels < 75 nmol/L at baseline may confer more benefit with supplementation.
Probably people with > 30 nanograms of vitamin D would have needed more than 4,000 IU to show an improvement
Items of Cognition and Intervention (give Vitamin D and see what happens)
- 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
Items of Cognition and Meta-analysis
- Alzheimer’s 1.6X more likely if vitamin D is less than 25 ng – meta-analysis July 2023
- Alzheimer’s patients have less Magnesium – meta-analysis Jan 2022
- Delirium or cognitive problems after surgery 1.5X more likely if low vitamin D –meta-analysis Aug 2022
- 2X higher risk of Alzheimer’s if poor Vitamin D Receptor – Meta-analysis June 2021
- Alzheimer’s Disease risk is 1.9 X higher if Vitamin D deficient- meta-analysis Feb 2020
- Alzheimer’s Disease risk is 1.3X higher if Vitamin D deficient – meta-analysis Nov 2019
- Mental disorders fought by Omega-3 etc. - meta-meta-analysis Oct 2019
- Alzheimer's risk increased 7 percent for every 4 ng decrease in Vitamin D– meta-analysis Nov 2018
- Dementia is associated with low vitamin D - many studies
- Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer's reduced by higher levels of Vitamin D – meta-analysis Feb 2018
- Poor cognition 26 percent more likely if low Vitamin D (29 studies) – meta-analysis July 2017
- Dementia risk factor is increased by 1.5 if low vitamin D – meta-analysis Jan 2017
- Omega-3 helps childhood cognition – meta-analysis April 2016
- Poor cognition associated with low vitamin D in elderly (Asians now too) – meta-analysis March 2016
- Cognitive decline in elderly slowed by Omega-3 – meta-analysis May 2015
- Alzheimer’s disease 21 percent more likely if low vitamin D – meta-analysis Aug 2015
- Parkinson's and Alzheimer's: associations with vitamin D receptor genes and race – meta-analysis July 2014
- Brain (Alzheimer’s) worked better with Vitamin D intervention – meta-analysis July 2013
- Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases associated with low vitamin D – meta-analysis June 2013
- Alzheimer's Disease more likely with low vitamin D – meta-analysis Oct 2012
- Alzheimer disease associated with 2.5 ng less vitamin D – meta-analysis Sept 2012
- Cognitive Impairment 2.4X more likely if low vitamin D – meta-analysis July 2012
Overview Alzheimer's-Cognition and Vitamin D has the following summary
- FACT: Cognitive decline is 19X more likely if low vitamin D
- FACT: Dementia is associated with low vitamin D levels.
- FACT: Alzheimer’s Dementia 2.3X more likely in elderly if low vitamin D – Dec 2022
- FACT: Dementia is associated with low vitamin D - many studies
- FACT: Alzheimer's Disease is 4X less likely if high vitamin D
- FACT: Every single risk factor listed for Alzheimer's Disease is also a risk factor for low vitamin D levels
- FACT: Elderly cognition gets worse as the elderly vitamin D levels get even lower (while in senior homes)
- OBSERVATION: Reports of increased vitamin D levels result in improved cognition
- OBSERVATION: Alzheimer’s patients 3X more likely to have a malfunctioning vitamin D receptor gene – 2012
- OBSERVATION: Alzheimer's Disease has been seen to halt when vitamin D was added.
- OBSERVATION: Alzheimer’s is associated with all 7 of the genes which restrict vitamin D
- OBSERVATION: 39 vitamin D and Alz. or Cognition intervention trials as of Sept 2018
- OBSERVATION: 2 Meta-analysis in 2012 agreed that Alzheimer's Disease. associated with low vitamin D
- OBSERVATION: 50X increase in Alzheimer's while decrease in vitamin D
- OBSERVATION: Vitamin D reduces Alzheimer’s disease in 11 ways
- OBSERVATION: Alzheimer’s cognition improved by 4,000 IU of vitamin D
- OBSERVATION: Plaque removed in mice by equiv. of 14,000 IU daily
- OBSERVATION: DDT (which decreases Vit D) increases risk of Alzheimer's by up to 3.8X
- OBSERVATION: 2% of people have 2 copies of the poor gene reference: Alz Org
- OBSERVATION: Genes do not change rapidly enough to account for the huge increase in incidence
- OBSERVATION: End of Alzheimer's videos, transcripts and many studies protocol has been very successful
- It adjusts Vitamin D, B-12, Iron, Omega-3, food, etc, and can now be done at home.
- FACT: Vitamin D is extremely low cost and has very very few side effects
- CONCLUSION: Everyone concerned about cognitive decline or Alzheimer's Disease should take vitamin D
- PREDICTION MET: By 2024 Omega-3 and high dose Vitamin D will be found to reverse Alzheimer's in humans
There are 13+ Alzheimer’s meta-analyses in VitaminDWiki
There are 97+ Alzheimer’s studies in VitaminDWiki
Dementia is associated with low vitamin D - many studies 50+ studies
16+ studies in both categories Cognitive and Omega-3
Background
Insufficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] has been associated with dementia and cognitive decline. However, the effects of vitamin D supplementation on cognition are unclear. It was hypothesized that high dose vitamin D3 supplementation would result in enhanced cognitive functioning, particularly among adults whose 25(OH)D levels were insufficient (< 75 nmol/L) at baseline.
Methods
Healthy adults (n = 82) from northern British Columbia, Canada (54° north latitude) with baseline 25(OH)D levels ≤ 100 nmol/L were randomized and blinded to High Dose (4000 IU/d) versus Low Dose (400 IU/d) vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) for 18 weeks. Baseline and follow-up serum 25(OH)D and cognitive performance were assessed and the latter consisted of: Symbol Digit Modalities Test, verbal (phonemic) fluency, digit span, and the CANTAB® computerized battery. Results: There were no significant baseline differences between Low (n = 40) and High (n = 42) dose groups. Serum 25(OH)D increased significantly more in the High Dose (from 67.2 ± 20 to 130.6 ± 26 nmol/L) than the Low Dose group (60.5 ± 22 to 85.9 ± 16 nmol/L), p = 0.0001.
Performance improved in the High Dose group on nonverbal (visual) memory, as assessed by the
- Pattern Recognition Memory task (PRM), from 84.1 ± 14.9 to 88.3 ± 13.2, p = 0.043 (d = 0.3) and
- Paired Associates Learning Task, (PAL) number of stages completed, from 4.86 ± 0.35 to 4.95 ± 0.22, p = 0.044 (d = 0.5),
but not in the Low Dose Group. Mixed effects modeling controlling for age, education, sex and baseline performance revealed that the degree of improvement was comparatively greater in the High Dose Group for these tasks, approaching significance: PRM, p = 0.11 (d = 0.4), PAL, p = 0.058 (d = 0.4). Among those who had insufficient 25(OH)D (< 75 nmol/L) at baseline, the High Dose group (n = 23) improved significantly (p = 0.005, d = 0.7) and to a comparatively greater degree on the PRM (p = 0.025, d = 0.6).
Conclusions
Nonverbal (visual) memory seems to benefit from higher doses of vitamin D supplementation, particularly among those who are insufficient (< 75 nmol/L) at baseline, while verbal memory and other cognitive domains do not. These findings are consistent with recent cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, which have demonstrated significant positive associations between 25(OH)D levels and nonverbal, but not verbal, memory. While our findings require confirmation, they suggest that higher 25(OH)D is particularly important for higher level cognitive functioning, specifically nonverbal (visual) memory, which also utilizes executive functioning processes.
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