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Director's Letter
Carole Baggerly
Director, GrassrootsHealth
Dementia and Alzheimer's are sometimes called "the memory thief" and for good reason. It is hard to watch our loved ones head down this road, and this could be the #1 reason to take care of your health before you near the end of your life.
What if vitamin D, in early years, had a protective effect? We present three different studies that say just that, maybe even to the point that the earliest of all - in utero - has a protective effect for adulthood.
I remember hearing Dr. Burne's talk at the Linus Pauling Conference and other talks about nutrients in utero. It was the beginning, the spark in my mind, about Protect our Children
NOW! If nutrients have such an effect in utero - in the baby's development - what about vitamin D? How could we measure it? And Protect our Children
NOW! was born. Since that time it has been successfully implemented at the Medical University of South Carolina and soon in other hospitals as the amazing results become public.
Carole Baggerly
Director, GrassrootsHealth
A Public Health Promotion & Research Organization
Moving Research into Practice NOW!
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Can Vitamin D Help Stave off Dementia and Alzheimer's?
Vitamin D and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease
Thomas J. Littlejohns, MSc et al.
University of Exeter Medical School, UK
Neurology
September 2014
This paper is the one that many researchers reference when doing research on vitamin D and the brain. It records the population study of 1,658 people in the US population-based Cardiovascular Health Study between 1992-1993 and 1999. Vitamin D samples were collected for all participants upon entry into the study, in 1992-1993. At the time of entry participants had a mean age of 74 years, were free from dementia, cardiovascular disease, and stroke and able to walk and get around on their own. Their health conditions were then re-evaluated in 1999.
Using the cutoff of 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/L) they noticed a big difference in mental health. Those with vitamin D levels < 10 ng/ml were 2.22 times more likely to get Alzheimer and 2.25 more likely to develop all-cause dementia than participants with vitamin D levels > 20 ng/ml.
Below is the graph from the paper which measures incidence vs. vitamin D levels. It looks similar to many other disease graphs, raising vitamin D lowers incidence until a point and then flattens out. For Alzheimer's, the flattening point was found to be about 20 ng/ml. (Note that the graphs use the vitamin D units of nmol/L. To convert nmol/L to ng/ml, divide by 2.5.)
Multivariate adjusted smoothing spline plots showing the hazard ratios for dementia and Alzheimer disease by serum 25(OH)D concentrations
Models adjusted for age, season of vitamin D collection, education, sex, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, and depressive symptoms. Hazard ratios centered on median serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations.
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Vitamin D & MS
 Mathew Mizwicki, PhD
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
May 2013
Dr. Mizwicki thoroughly explains how Alzheimer's Disease (AD) works and what is happening in the brain at a very detailed, scientific level. He focuses on how amyloid beta (Ab) plaques, plaques that can disrupt normal communication between the cells in the brain, are processed within the brain. Are they taken care of/broken down? Or do they remain in the brain, even increase in number?
He states that vitamin D plays a role in preventing and or slowing the progression of AD by regulating the function and survival of innate immune cells, i.e. macrophages, and also as functioning as a nerve protecting hormone.
How does vitamin D support the function of the immune system? In a healthy subject, with sufficient vitamin D, A
b can be deposited in the brain but the immune system will break it down and transport it away from the brain through the blood stream.
With AD patients, the macrophage binds to A
b, but it doesn't process it correctly and actually deposits more A
bs while trying to break down the first one.
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Interview: Vitamin D & the Brain
 Thomas Burne, PhD
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland
June 2013
Dr. Burne and his lab started by looking at the epidemiology of schizophrenia. He found people born in winter and spring are more likely to get schizophrenia.
He started looking at animal models, and trying to re-create this scenario. He does this by keeping a set of rats deficient in vitamin D only during pregnancy and then putting them back on normal vitamin D after birth and through adulthood.
He then studies the brains of these animals - and has found long term effects on the brain that are very similar to the types of brain structures and behaviors of people with schizophrenia.
He discusses the importance of brain development and that disrupting this development will lead to mental problems in adulthood. He states that the first year of life for a human is also critically important.
He recommends sufficient levels of vitamin D prior to conception for the best outcome.
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Editor's Letter
Susan Siljander
Marketing Director, GrassrootsHealth
There are many, many articles on vitamin D and the brain. We have done a
whole series on vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis, which is a neurological disease. If you have a certain brain condition you can google "ncbi vitamin D <condition>" and you might find some interesting results. It never hurts to look.
This newsletter just helps me confirm that my family, those in my house and extended family, need to test and maintain 40-60 ng/ml for their whole life. It is also why I tell anyone who will listen.
Please help spread the word - share this newsletter - buy a
D*action subscription for a friend - it is a gift that could change their life.
Have a great week!
Susan Siljander
Marketing Director, GrassrootsHealth
A Public Health Promotion & Research Organization
Moving Research Into Practice NOW!
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Vitamin D in the Prevention of Health Disparities During Pregnancy and Early Infancy
Thursday, March 23
8am - 3pm
Medical University of South Carolina
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Vitamin D and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease
Thomas J. Littlejohns, MSc et al.
University of Exeter Medical School, UK
Neurology
September 2014
Vitamin D & Alzheimer's Prevention
Mathew Mizwicki, PhD
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
May 2013
Vitamin D & the Brain
Thomas Burne, PhD
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland
June 2013
Developmental
Vitamin D Deficiency and Risk of Schizophrenia: A 10-Year Update
John J. McGrath et al.
Queensland Center for Mental Health Research
Schzisophrenia Bulletin
November 2010
Vitamin D and Cognitive Function
Maya Soni et al.
University of Exeter
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