Study: Higher vitamin D levels associated with lower risk of Alzheimer’s

Running in the summer sun may be lowering your risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life.

Although there are other ways to get a healthy dose of sun to keep levels of vitamin D up, running during the summer months is a great way to get your daily dose of the sunshine vitamin, and more new research has found high vitamin D levels to be associated with a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s later in life.

The newest research, published in the journal Neurology, is the first large-scale study to find a correlation between vitamin D levels and risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The study had 1,658 elderly adults tested for vitamin D levels and followed up an average of 5.6 years later. In total, 171 had developed all-cause dementia, including 102 cases of Alzheimer’s disease.

Those with lower levels of vitamin D were more likely to be among the group of those who developed dementia. Those with 25-50 nanomoles per litre were 69 per cent more likely than those with levels about 50 nanomoles per litre to have developed Alheimer’s and 53 per cent more likely to have all-cause dementia. Those with a reading below 25 were twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s. All results were controlled for other factors which contribute to the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The researchers stop short of suggesting how long someone should spend in the sun. It’s important to remember that time spent in the sun can also have negative effects, including a higher risk of skin cancer. Balancing your time spent in the sun safely and wearing the correct sunblock is always important, but getting out for a run could be helping you lower your chance of dementia later in life.