Men’s health centre

Vitamin D for quicker thinking?

BMJ Group News

21 July, 2009 - Men aged 60 and over may think faster if they have adequate blood levels of vitamin D, according to a European study.

The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, included more than 3,100 men aged 40 and above in eight European cities: Manchester; Florence in Italy; Leuven in Belgium; Lodz in Poland; Malmo in Sweden; Santiago de Compostela in Spain; Szeged in Hungary, and Tartu in Estonia.

The men, who were about 60 years old, on average, provided blood samples so the researchers could check their vitamin D levels. Their average vitamin D level was in the adequate range.

The men were also tested for their visual memory, visual scanning, and speed at processing visual information.

Men in their 60s and 70s with low levels of vitamin D were the most likely participants to have low scores on the visual scanning and processing test.

Those findings held when the researchers considered various factors, including the men's years of education, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, BMI ( body mass index), depression symptoms, the season of the year, and the location where the men were tested.

Those last two factors -- the season and the location -- were considered because the body makes vitamin D best when exposed to bright sunlight. For instance, during winter in a northern city, people may not be able to make vitamin D as well as they could during summer in a southern city.

The research, which was led by David Lee, PhD from the Department of Public Health at the University of Manchester, accepts that other factors, apart from vitamin D, may have affected the results.

The findings were a snapshot in time; Lee's team didn't follow the men over time to see if their vitamin D levels or test scores changed.

In the journal, Lee and colleagues call for further studies to test whether vitamin D supplements might help minimise age-related declines in specific mental skills.