Vitamin D and Depression

Experts aren’t sure if a lack of it leads to depression or if it’s the other way around. But studies show a link between the two. Research is ongoing to see if raising your vitamin D levels can help with symptoms and boost your mood.

Fight the Flu

Scientists are still figuring out exactly how well vitamin D can treat or even keep you from getting the virus. One study showed taking vitamin D drops in the winter helped lower the number of Japanese schoolchildren who got the flu. It’s clear it’s an important part of a healthy immune system. Your body can’t fight germs well if it doesn’t have enough.

Multiple Sclerosis

Studies show vitamin D may lower your chance of getting MS. It’s a disease where your immune system attacks the central nervous system. If you already have it, some studies show vitamin D can ease your symptoms or even slow the disease’s growth.

Heart Help?

There’s no solid proof vitamin D supplements lower your risk of heart attack or stroke. But there’s hope it might head off heart failure. Researchers are looking into it.

Cancer Connection

Vitamin D may curb your chances of certain cancers, like colon, breast, and prostate. The rates are even better when paired with calcium. In one clinical trial, African Americans’ risk went down 23% when they took vitamin D supplements.

Bone Builder

Healthy vitamin D levels can slow bone loss. It also helps ward off osteoporosis and lowers your chance of broken bones. Doctors use vitamin D to treat osteomalacia. That’s a condition that causes soft bones, bone loss, and bone pain.

A Link to Weight Loss

Want to shed pounds? Try vitamin D supplements. Taken with calcium, it can keep you from feeling hungry as often. This means you eat fewer calories.

Vitamin D is known to participate in the clearance of amyloid beta (Aβ) aggregates,7, 8 one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and may provide neuroprotection against Aβ-induced tau hyperphosphorylation. Low levels of serum vitamin D have been associated with a greater risk of dementia and AD.

When you or someone you love has Alzheimer’s, you may be open to any and all possible ways to treat it and keep it from getting worse. Because there’s no cure, and a pretty limited number of medications you can take, you might be thinking about what vitamins and supplements can do.

No doubt about it: Good nutrition helps you from head to toe. But there are no vitamins or supplements proven to prevent, stop, or slow down Alzheimer’s.

The foods you eat do matter for your brain health, and they’re the best way to get nutrients. If you’re looking to try supplements, tell your doctor first to make sure that they’re not likely to have side effects or cause problems with any other medicines you take.
Antioxidants

These nutrients protect your body from molecules called “free radicals” that damage cells and can cause cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.

There are a lot of different antioxidants, like beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and resveratrol. They are in plant foods, such as berries, greens, tea, and bell peppers.

Free radicals tend to build up in nerve cells as we get older. Studies on the brains of people with Alzheimer’s have found signs of oxidative stress, which means that the body has been trying to fight free radical damage. So getting more antioxidants would seem to be a good thing.

But there is no easy answer, at least not yet.

The antioxidant connection is a hot area in Alzheimer’s research, but everyone agrees that more still needs to be done. Researchers aren’t sure if some antioxidants are better than others, and it’s possible that it might be better to get your antioxidants from food instead of from supplements.

Resveratrol

You can get this antioxidant from red grapes, red wine, peanuts, and some dark chocolate. Some researchers think it has anti-aging properties, and can lower your risk of certain diseases.

Scientists have thought for a while that resveratrol might be able to protect your brain from the effects of Alzheimer’s. A recent study showed that daily doses of resveratrol did slow down the progress of the disease.

That study is promising, but it doesn’t prove that resveratrol fights Alzheimer’s. The people in the study took a really strong dose of resveratrol that isn’t available to the public — 1 gram of it contains as much resveratrol as 1,000 bottles of red wine. But the study authors say it did show that resveratrol is safe to take if you have Alzheimer’s.

Plus, scientists need to see a lot of studies before they draw conclusions one way or the other. And some research shows that a diet loaded with resveratrol might not mean better health after all.
Vitamin D

One of vitamin D’s jobs is to help the brain. Most of us get our vitamin D from the sun and from foods like fatty fish, cheese, and egg yolks. But it’s also available over the counter as a supplement.

There’s a link between vitamin D and Alzheimer’s. A number of studies have shown that people with Alzheimer’s have low vitamin D levels. One study found people with very low vitamin D were twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s.

But, there’s so much left to learn about the connection between vitamin D and Alzheimer’s. We don’t know if low vitamin D causes Alzheimer’s. We also don’t know if taking vitamin D can treat or prevent the disease.

A lot more research has to be done before doctors will start prescribing vitamin D for Alzheimer’s. But, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation does list it as “very safe” for you to take as a supplement.
Ginkgo Biloba

You may have heard of ginkgo biloba as a memory aid — and maybe something that sounds like it could help you with Alzheimer’s. And researchers have studied it over the years. But so far, they haven’t found any proof that it improves memory at all, even in people who don’t have Alzheimer’s.

Ginkgo has been shown to cause other side effects, including bleeding, lowering blood sugar, and altering blood pressure. So it may be best to avoid completely.