Parkinson's Patients Have Less Vitamin D

(October 14, 2008) - People with Parkinson's disease (Read about "Parkinson's Disease") seem to have lower levels of vitamin D. (Read about "Vitamins & Minerals") Researchers aren't saying less vitamin D means you'll develop Parkinson's disease, but they are suggesting that more study needs to be done on vitamin D.

According to a report in the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, individuals with Parkinson's disease appear more likely to be vitamin D deficient than healthy adults of the same age or patients with Alzheimer's disease. (Read about "Alzheimer's Disease")

"Vitamin D is important for maintaining many physiologic functions, and vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risk of disease," according to background information in the article. "Patients with chronic neurodegenerative diseases frequently have many risk factors for vitamin D insufficiency," including advancing age, obesity (Read about "Obesity"), avoidance of sun exposure, residence in northerly latitudes and having darker skin.

Researchers compared vitamin D levels of 100 patients with Parkinson's disease to vitamin D levels of 97 Alzheimer's disease patients and 99 healthy individuals.

"Significantly more patients with Parkinson's disease (55 percent) had insufficient vitamin D than did controls (36 percent) or patients with Alzheimer's disease (41 percent)," the authors write. The average vitamin D concentration in the group with Parkinson's disease was considerably lower than the Alzheimer's disease and healthy groups.