{"id":578054,"date":"2026-04-02T20:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/578054\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:12:13","slug":"higher-levels-of-vitamin-d-in-middle-age-could-protect-against-dementia-study-suggests-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/578054\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher levels of vitamin D in middle age could protect against dementia, study suggests \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Higher levels of vitamin D in middle age could protect against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dementia\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dementia\/\">dementia<\/a> in later life, an international study led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/university-of-galway\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/university-of-galway\/\">University of Galway<\/a> suggests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The research, published on Thursday in Neurology Open Access, an official journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found an association between having higher levels of vitamin D in middle age and lower levels of tau protein in the brain \u2013 a sign of dementia \u2013 years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The researchers cautioned that the findings do not prove cause and effect, and that additional studies are required, but described the results as \u201cpromising\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The study involved nearly 800 people with an average age of 39 who did not have dementia. All participants had the level of vitamin D in their blood measured at the start of the study.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The participants then had brain scans about 16 years later that measured biomarkers for Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A total of 34 per cent of participants had low levels of vitamin D and 5 per cent were taking vitamin D supplements. The results took into account other factors that could affect tau levels, such as age, sex and symptoms of depression.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The results showed that higher vitamin D levels are associated with lower levels of the Alzheimer\u2019s biomarker tau protein years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Prof Emer McGrath, senior author and consultant neurologist at Galway University Hospital, said vitamin D could be an \u201cimportant factor to protect future brain health\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhile previous research has linked low vitamin D in adults over 70 with an increased risk of dementia, this study is among the first to look at younger adults at midlife, around the average age of 39. Low vitamin D in midlife may be an important target to reduce the risk of early signs of preclinical dementia in the brain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/health\/your-wellness\/2025\/12\/03\/my-wife-has-been-diagnosed-with-dementia-and-im-upset-we-have-not-had-the-chance-to-realise-our-dreams\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018My wife has been diagnosed with dementia and I\u2019m upset we have not had the chance to realise our dreams\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cHowever, while these findings are very interesting, they only demonstrate an association between vitamin D and early signs of dementia in the brain. Further studies, for example a clinical trial, will be required to determine if vitamin D supplements could prevent dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Higher levels of vitamin D in middle age could protect against dementia in later life, an international study&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[49,48,10237,84,395,59007],"class_list":{"0":"post-578054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dementia","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-nutrition","13":"tag-university-of-galway"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}