Anti Aging Health and Nutrition

Posts Tagged ‘brain health’

Vitamin D is a “fat-soluble” vitamin produced by a small series of foods and produced within the body when ultraviolet rays from the sun hit the skin. A study conducted in Finland, links higher levels of vitamin D to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.

The first hypothesis thought out by scientists from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, was that Parkinson’s disease “may be caused by a continuously inadequate vitamin D status leading to a chronic loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain.”

The study was published in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, and by the end of the 29-year period, in which 3,173 Finnish men and women (between the ages of 50-79) free of Parkinson’s were followed, 50 of them had acquired the illness.

The researchers said Vitamin D “has been shown to exert a protective effect on the brain through antioxidant activities, regulation of calcium levels, detoxification, modulation of the immune system and enhanced conduction of electricity through neurons,” but still haven’t been able to clarify how this nutrient influences the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

Finland has limited amounts of sunlight, and so its population has constantly low vitamin D levels. After considering other elements such as the body mass of each subject and their physical activity, the subjects with the highest levels of vitamin D were found to have 67% lower risk of developing the illness than those with the lowest levels of vitamin D.

Many Americans also suffer from low Vitamin D levels, due to limited exposure to sunlight due to skin cancer concerns. Vitamin D supplements are recommended to prevent Vitamin D deficiency, which is linked to a number of health concerns including osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, muscle weakness and brain health.

Doctors Philippe Marambaud, Haitian Zhao, and Peter Davies from the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for the Study of Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York published a study in 2005 that found that resveratrol, a red wine ingredient, lowers the levels of an Alzheimer’s disease protein.

Several studies show that moderate red wine consumption is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Wine is full of antioxidant compounds that have potential nerve protection characteristics. In this study, resveratrol is shown to lower the levels of a specific protein that clumps in the brain as a result of a gene variation. This protein, called beta amyloid, can lead to memory loss and dementia, which are features of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is a disorder that leads to the most common form of dementia occurring in aging adults. These findings suggest resveratrol supplements, made from natural compounds, have a therapeutic potential in Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have shown that moderate wine intake reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Resveratrol is suspected to have antioxidant and nerve protection properties. Therefore, resveratrol contributes to the beneficial effect of drinking red wine on the nerve degeneration process associated with aging.

This study also suggests that chemical modifications of resveratrol can be done in the context of improving its potency, stability, and the rate at which resveratrol is absorbed. This can also improve resveratrol’s therapeutic use to fight the effects of aging.