Vitamin D for Your Brain
Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that influences T regulatory cells, critical for immune modulation. Consistent with inflammatory models of mental illness, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with major psychiatric diagnoses and now animal studies may be shedding light on mechanistic drivers.
- In this UK study, rats fed low vitamin D diets were found to have free radical damage in their brains related to oxidative stress.
- This finding was correlated with diminished performance on cognitive tasks
Some clinicians, including myself, question the cause of epidemic levels of vitamin D deficiency and suggest that toxic exposures such as pesticides and chronic infection as well as suppressed cholesterol may all be contributing to the association of low vitamin D with chronic illness. Resolving the root cause of these impacts is important, and monitored supplementation has proven to be an effective interim measure.
Read the study here.
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