A majority of Parkinson’s disease patients had insufficient levels of vitamin D in a study from Emory University School of Medicine.
The fraction of Parkinson’s patients with vitamin D insufficiency, 55 percent, was significantly more than patients with Alzheimer’s disease (41 percent) or healthy elderly people (36 percent).
The research team compared Parkinson’s patients to Alzheimer’s patients because they wanted to evaluate the possibility that neurodegenerative diseases in general lead to vitamin D insufficiency.
The connection with vitamin D could come partly because patients with Parkinson’s have mobility problems and are seldom exposed to the sun, or because low vitamin D levels are in some way related to the genesis or progression of the disease. The team found their results striking because their study group came from the Southeast, not a region with long gloomy winters, where vitamin D insufficiency is thought to be more of a problem.
In addition, the study found that the fraction of those with the lowest levels of vitamin D, described as vitamin D deficiency, was higher (23 percent) in the Parkinson’s group than the Alzheimer’s group (16 percent) or the healthy group (10 percent).
The study examined 100 people in each group, who were recruited between 1992 and 2007.
Source: EurekAlert, 13 October 2008
Chapter: Parkinson's Disease :: 27 October 2008
