| Low Vitamin D Levels and Risk of Parkinson’s |
| Friday, 20 August 2010 15:29 | |||
 Salt Lake City, Utah, August 2010 — In a newly published study, researchers have examined whether serum vitamin D levels are predictive of the risk of Parkinson’s disease.
Participants included 3,173 Finnish men and women aged 50-79 determined to be free of Parkinson’s disease at the beginning of the study. Vitamin D samples were taken at the beginning of the study and frozen. During 29 years of follow-up, 50 documented cases of Parkinson’s disease were recorded among study participants. Serum vitamin D levels were determined from the frozen samples taken at the beginning of the study. The relationship between serum vitamin D concentration and Parkinson’s disease incidence was then calculated. Participants with the highest levels of vitamin D (more than 50 nmol/L) had a 67 percent lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease than those with the lowest vitamin D levels (less than 25 nmol/L.) The difference was validated after adjustment for sex, age, marital status, education, alcohol consumption, leisure-time physical activity, smoking, body mass index (BMI), and month of blood draw. The results of this study are consistent with the suggestion that high vitamin D status provides protection against Parkinson’s disease. The scientists acknowledge that there may be other factors involved in the results, however, so further research is warranted. www.usana.com SOURCE: USANA
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