|
|
[뉴스줌=정진태기자] According to a recent report in the Australian daily The Australian, A study has found that vitamin D deficiency directly affects the risk of dementia. A research team led by Professor Elina Hipponen, director of the Center for Precision Health at the University of South Australia, analyzed the genetic analysis data of 294,514 UK Biobanks using ‘Mendelian randomization’. Mendelian randomized analysis is a research method to infer a causal relationship by analyzing the association between environmental risk factors for a specific disease and genetic mutations related to it.
“The blood level of vitamin D must be at least 50 nmol/L,” said Professor Hiponen’s research team. , it was analyzed that 17% of dementia patients could be prevented by raising the vitamin D blood level from 25 nmol/L to 50 nmol/L.” In this process, the research team confirmed that a genetic causal relationship was established between vitamin D deficiency and dementia.
Studies have shown that people with vitamin D deficiency have smaller brains and a higher risk of dementia and stroke. In other words, it is biologically possible that vitamin D protects brain health, the research team explains. The research team focused on the relationship between the hippocampus and vitamin D receptors, the association between the regulation of the renin-angiotensin system and the reduction of vitamin D blood clots, and the inhibition of neurovascular damage by vitamin D to derive the results.
As a result of the study, there is a vitamin D receptor in the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, and it was found that vitamin D promotes the growth and maturation of neurons through the function of a neurosteroid. Vitamin D was also found to have an effect on the reduction of blood clots and the regulation of the renin-angiotensin system. Finally, the research team speculated that vitamin D protects the brain by inhibiting excessive inflammatory neurovascular damage caused by the decline of pro-inflammatory proteins, cytokines and amyloid proteins, which are commonly observed in Alzheimer’s dementia. Meanwhile, the research results of the research team have been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Vitamin D, also called the ‘sunshine vitamin’, is synthesized in the skin through sunlight. However, as more and more people spend their leisure time at indoor shopping malls and movie theaters, etc., it is becoming difficult to supplement vitamin D through sunlight. As the sky was cloudy all day with fine dust and yellow dust, vitamin D supplementation took an emergency. Therefore, experts recommend that you meet your daily vitamin D needs, albeit with food. Animal foods such as duck meat, pork, salmon, and herring are representative foods rich in vitamin D. Although the content is lower than that of living things, it is possible to supplement vitamin D through processed foods such as sausages and hams. Mushrooms such as wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms are also good sources of vitamin D.
If it is difficult to supplement vitamin D through food, supplementation of nutrients is necessary. Vitamin D supplements are available in the market in the form of health functional foods. In order to choose a high-quality product that you can trust and eat, it is good to look closely at the ingredients. Vitamin D raw materials are largely divided into natural and synthetic. Synthetic vitamins are artificially modeled after the molecular formula of natural vitamin D through chemical treatment. Synthetic vitamin D cannot follow the various cofactors attached to natural vitamins, so only the nutritional component exists. For this reason, in the case of synthetic vitamins, the human body recognizes them as foreign substances, which may interfere with body absorption and bioavailability.
