Monday, June 1, 2009

Higher vitamin D levels associated with speedier brain processing

In an article published on May 21, 2009 online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, European researchers report that men with higher vitamin D levels performed better on a test of attention and speed of information processing than those with lower levels of the vitamin.

Dr David M. Lee of the University of Manchester's School of Translational Medicine and his associates administered 3 tests of cognitive function to 3,369 men aged 40 to 79 from 8 centers participating in the European Male Aging Study (EMAS). Fasting blood samples collected from the subjects were analyzed for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.
Men whose vitamin D levels were higher were found to perform better on all three tests, although the Digit Symbol Substitution test, which measures psychomotor speed and visual scanning, was the only test whose scores were associated with vitamin D levels after adjustment for several factors. Further analysis revealed that higher test scores were particularly associated with increased vitamin D levels in older men. Continue Reading

No comments: