{"id":825111,"date":"2026-08-25T08:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825111\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T08:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:20:13","slug":"common-daily-vitamin-linked-to-13-cognitive-boost-in-early-dementia-study-shows-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/825111\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Daily Vitamin Linked to 13% Cognitive Boost in Early Dementia, Study Shows : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anybody with a loved one experiencing dementia or Alzheimer’s<\/a>, news of prospective drug treatments failing<\/a> or producing mixed results<\/a> is a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

But emerging evidence gives reasons for hope too, with research suggesting a common vitamin<\/a> supplement may have a promising effect on patients with signs of early dementia, and it’s a cheap daily pill that’s available to anybody.<\/p>\n

In a new study published in Sleep Medicine<\/a>, scientists found daily intake of a vitamin D supplement was linked with a significant boost in cognitive test results for people with two hallmarks of early dementia: mild cognitive impairment<\/a> (MCI) and sleep disturbances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the scientists, it’s the first research analyzing the link between vitamin D supplementation and cognition in patients with these two key symptoms, but it’s worth noting that this is only a small observational study \u2013 and it doesn’t prove that vitamin D enhances cognitive performance.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the findings add to growing evidence that vitamin D may protect brain health<\/a> and help stave off dementia<\/a>, in addition to seemingly offering benefits to aging processes<\/a>, heart health<\/a>, and depression<\/a>, among many other conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As we so often see with neurodegenerative diseases<\/a>, taking action early may be crucial, researchers think.<\/p>\n

“This may represent a critical window for intervention, when cognitive changes are\u202femerging, but opportunities to support brain health may remain,” says<\/a> sleep scientist Victoria Pak from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n

In the study, Pak’s team assessed 54 adults aged 50 or older, all of whom had diagnosed or suspected MCI, and showed signs of sleep disturbance.<\/p>\n

\"OneDaily intake of a vitamin D supplement was linked with a significant boost in cognitive test results. (Olga Pankova\/Moment\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The participants undertook the Montreal Cognitive Assessment<\/a> (MoCA) to evaluate their levels of cognitive function, and two separate tests to measure their sleep quality, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index<\/a> (PSQI) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale<\/a> (ESS).<\/p>\n

Participants also reported their levels of vitamin D intake, and when the researchers compared their daily dosage against the cognitive and sleep measures, an interesting result stood out.<\/p>\n

After accounting for potential confounding factors including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), vitamin D type, and education level, the researchers found participants who took a daily dosage of 5,000+ IU of vitamin D scored ~13 percent higher (3.78 points higher) on the MoCA cognitive test results compared with those who didn’t take vitamin D supplements.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

People taking lower daily doses of vitamin D also scored nominally higher than participants who didn’t take daily vitamin D, but the lower-dose results were not statistically significant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The association for 5,000+ IU held true regardless of whether the participants took vitamin D2 or vitamin D3<\/a>, but it’s worth noting that 5,000+ IU is slightly above the maximum suggested daily intake of vitamin D, which is 4,000 IU<\/a>, an amount generally considered to be the safe upper limit to avoid developing hypercalcemia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For that reason, it’s important to realize that the key result here is not any kind of updated recommendation about how much vitamin D people should take \u2013 even if research is starting to show that doses between 4,000 and 6,000 IU may offer greater protection against some adverse health outcomes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: One Common Vitamin Could Lower Toxic Alzheimer’s Proteins, Research Suggests<\/a><\/p>\n

At this stage, this is only a preliminary finding from a small study, which the researchers say warrants further analysis in subsequent studies involving larger groups of participants.<\/p>\n

While we have to remain cautious for now, it’s a great lead for scientists to investigate in future, especially since vitamin D is so inexpensive and readily available.<\/p>\n

Once the science settles, we could have something really significant here.<\/p>\n

“Identifying\u202faccessible and modifiable factors, such as vitamin D supplement intake, during the earlier stages of cognitive decline may become increasingly important,” Pak says<\/a>, “particularly as rates of Alzheimer’s disease continue to rise.”<\/p>\n

The findings are reported in Sleep Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For anybody with a loved one experiencing dementia or Alzheimer’s, news of prospective drug treatments failing or producing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97,1352],"class_list":["post-825111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-msft-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}