90% use too much of an everyday substance that can cause inflammation of blood vessels in the brain, which is linked to dementia.
Sleep disturbance is common in dementia, but the reason is unclear.
People highest in this trait were significantly less likely to develop dementia over 14 years.
Higher levels of this vitamin in midlife may give protection against dementia years later.
The amount of steps that reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s.
The memories of people with low levels of this vitamin decline three times faster.
The memories of people with low levels of this vitamin decline three times faster.
Low levels of vitamin D among older people are linked to memory loss.
Those with low levels of vitamin D decline three times faster than those with adequate levels.
Professor Joshua Miller, one of the study’s authors, said:
“Independent of race or ethnicity, baseline cognitive abilities and a host of other risk factors, vitamin D insufficiency was associated with significantly faster declines in both episodic memory and executive function performance.
This work, and that of others, suggests that there is enough evidence to recommend that people in their 60s and older discuss taking a daily vitamin D supplement with their physicians.
Even if doing so proves to not be effective, there’s still very low health risk to doing it.”
The study included almost 400 older people and around 60% had low levels of vitamin D.
In fact, around one-quarter were found to be deficient (very low) and 35% insufficient (just low) in vitamin D.
African-Americans and Hispanics were more likely than white people to be low in vitamin D.
These are high-risk groups because those with darker skins cannot absorb as much from the sun.
The results showed that the cognitive abilities of people deficient in vitamin D declined two to three times faster than those with adequate levels.
Professor Charles DeCarli, the study’s first author and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at UC Davis, said:
“We expected to see declines in individuals with low vitamin D status.
What was unexpected was how profoundly and rapidly [low vitamin D] impacts cognition.”
The other major source of vitamin D is the diet — particularly the consumption of dairy products.
Professor DeCarli said:
“I don’t know if replacement therapy would affect these cognitive trajectories.
That needs to be researched and we are planning on doing that.
This is a vitamin deficiency that could easily be treated and that has other health consequences.
We need to start talking about it.
And we need to start talking about it, particularly for people of color, for whom vitamin D deficiency appears to present an even greater risk.”
The study was published in the journal JAMA Neurology (DeCarli et al., 2015).
Elderly people low in this vitamin were more than twice as likely to develop dementia.
Elderly people low in this vitamin were more than twice as likely to develop dementia.
Low levels of Vitamin D are substantially associated with developing Alzheimer’s and dementia in older people.
An international team of scientists used data from 1,685 elderly Americans who were followed for around five years.
None had dementia problems at the start of the study, but after an average of five years, 171 had developed dementia, 102 of whom had Alzheimer’s disease.
The study found that, amongst those who developed dementia, those with low vitamin D levels were 53 percent more likely to develop the disease.
Amongst those who were severely deficient, the risk increased by 125 percent.
Similar increases in risk were seen for Alzheimer’s disease: low levels of vitamin D increased risk by 69 percent and severe deficiency by 122 percent.
Dr David Llewellyn of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the study, said:
“We expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but the results were surprising — we actually found that the association was twice as strong as we anticipated.
Clinical trials are now needed to establish whether eating foods such as oily fish or taking vitamin D supplements can delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
We need to be cautious at this early stage and our latest results do not demonstrate that low vitamin D levels cause dementia.
That said, our findings are very encouraging, and even if a small number of people could benefit, this would have enormous public health implications given the devastating and costly nature of dementia.”
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Littlejohns et al., 2014).
The personality changes came ahead of more obvious behavioural changes linked to Alzheimer’s.
The personality changes came ahead of more obvious behavioural changes linked to Alzheimer’s.
Increases in neuroticism may help to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s.
Neuroticism is one of the five major personality traits and it involves a tendency towards worry and moodiness.
Neuroticism is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas.
Neuroticism is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.
People who transition from mild cognitive impairment to full-blown Alzheimer’s are more likely to show personality changes.
Many people with mild cognitive impairment do not go on to develop dementia.
Both increased neuroticism and lower openness to experience predict the progression of the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease.
The conclusions come from a study that followed people for more than 7 years.
They were tested for personality, anxiety, depression and other symptoms.
The researchers found that personality changes typically came after memory had begun to worsen.
Increases in depression, anxiety and anger were strongly linked to the transition to dementia.
However, the personality changes came before typical behaviour changes — such as mood swings — were obvious.
The study’s authors write that Alzheimer’s disease is…
“…characterized by greater neuroticism and less openness; and coincide with subtle, clinically insignificant behavioral changes that qualitatively mirror and anticipate the clinically severe behavioral problems that often complicate dementia care.”
The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Caselli et al., 2018).
Research reveals everyday habits that shape how well our memory holds up with age.
Even a year after taking part in the study, the way some older people’s brains processed language was more akin to young people.
Even a year after taking part in the study, the way some older people’s brains processed language was more akin to young people.
Only tasks which involve sustained mental effort can help protect the brain from aging.Activities like digital photography or quilting can provide the necessary mental stimulation.Socialising, listening to music or playing simple games, though, did not have the same beneficial effects, researchers found.Dr Denise C. Park, one of the study’s authors, said:“The present findings provide some of the first experimental evidence that mentally-challenging leisure activities can actually change brain function and that it is possible that such interventions can restore levels of brain activity to a more youth-like state.However, we would like to conduct much larger studies to determine the universality of this effect and understand who will benefit the most from such an intervention.”The study involved assigning older adults to both high-challenge and low-challenge activities.They continued these for around 15 hours a week over 14 weeks.Only the activities that provided an active learning component were beneficial.People who learned quilting or digital photography showed impressive improvements:
“The study clearly illustrates that the enhanced neural efficiency was a direct consequence of participation in a demanding learning environment.The findings superficially confirm the familiar adage regarding cognitive aging of ‘Use it or lose it.'”Dr Park added:
“Although there is much more to be learned, we are cautiously optimistic that age-related cognitive declines can be slowed or even partially restored if individuals are exposed to sustained, mentally challenging experiences.”
Join the free PsyBlog mailing list. No spam, ever.
