Here's today's feel-good story:
A new link has been found between vitamin D and the conditions of dementia and strokes. The study, conducted by a team from the University of South Australia, shows that cases of dementia could drop by nearly a fifth if people who were vitamin D deficient took supplements to bring them to healthy levels.
Sunshine helps the skin produce vitamin D when exposed to light.
“In this UK population we observed that up to 17 per cent of dementia cases might have been avoided by boosting vitamin D levels to be within a normal range,” said study author Professor Elina Hyppönen, Senior investigator and Director of UniSA’s Australian Centre for Precision Health.
“Our study is the first to examine the effect of very low levels of vitamin D on the risks of dementia and stroke, using robust genetic analyses among a large population.