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Why Is Vitamin D Crucial For Brain Health?

We have known for many years that Vitamin D is important for bone health and in the prevention of osteoporosis. However, it is only in recent years that we have realised how important this nutrient is for general health and, particularly, for brain health. Here are just some of the main benefits of vitamin D:


• It plays a major role in breast and bowel cancer prevention
• It is important for your immune function, particularly when you need to fight off colds and flus
• It helps protect your body against conditions as diverse as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, dementia, infertility, autism, and allergies
• It reduces the risk of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Vitamin D also balances your immune function (if you have an autoimmune problem, it’s especially important to have your vitamin D levels tested), helps control inflammation, has antioxidant properties, and helps to control beta-amyloid plaque build-up. All these benefits are important for your brain health, so getting your levels exactly right is crucial if you are to benefit from them.

Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D deficiencies have also been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. We get most of our vitamin D quota from sunlight because natural food sources are few. Those most at risk of vitamin D deficiency are those who:

• Don’t go out much in the daytime
• Don’t expose their skin to sunlight
• Constantly wear make-up or cosmetics with built-in sun protection factors

The tone of your skin affects vitamin D production, so the darker your skin, the less your body produces vitamin D. Covering up large area of skin for religious reasons also reduces vitamin D production. It is estimated that we need about 30 minutes exposure to the sun every day to produce enough vitamin D to keep us healthy.

If you are moderately deficient in vitamin D, you have a 53% increased risk of dementia, and your risk of increases by 125% if you are severely deficient. With Alzheimer’s, one study found that those who were moderately deficient had a 69% increased risk, and the risk increased to 122% in those who were severely deficient.

This research showed evidence that these seem to be a threshold level in the blood below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s increases. Levels above 50 nmol/L are the most strongly associated with good brain health. However, I think a level between 80 – 100 nmol/L gives the best overall effect on general health, and this is the level I get my patients to aim for in my clinic.

How To Know If You’re Vitamin D Deficient

A question lots of people ask me when I give talks, is how much vitamin D should I take? The answer, of course, is that it depends on the level of your deficiency. For this reason, I now recommend that everyone gets their vitamin D levels checked, given this nutrient’s far-reaching health benefits, and then supplement to get the level back to normal. We have had instances in the clinics where the lab has even phoned to say there was no vitamin D detected at all.

There is, though, such a thing as too much vitamin D. A vitamin D level that is too low (less then 10nmol/L) increases the risk of all-cause mortality (dying of any cause) – but the same is true if your vitamin D levels are too high (more than 140 nmol/L). That’s why it’s important to get tested regularly, at the clinic we use this test that can be done via the post.

What Vitamin D To Choose?

Choose vitamin D in the form of D3, also called cholecalciferol. There is a cheaper form, called D2 (ergocalciferol), but research suggests that vitamin D3 is 87% more effective at raising and maintaining your vitamin D levels than vitamin D2. Researchers have said that ‘the assumption that vitamins D2 and D3 have equal nutritional value is probably wrong and should be reconsidered.’ Most people (especially older people) do not convert vitamin D2 to the active form that their bodies can use efficiently so it is best to speak to one of our nutritionists for advice.

Filed Under: Brain Health, Food Facts, General Health, Osteoporosis, Uncategorized, Weight Loss, Womens Health

A Beginner’s Brain Breakdown

woman looking down to the title of beggings brain breakdown in purple box with a colourful brain painting behind her head

The terms dementia and Alzheimer’s are often used interchangeably but dementia is actually an umbrella term for up to 100 different types of disease, of which Alzheimer’ is just one of them. What’s more, a person can suffer from more than one form of dementia at any one time and that’s because our brain – though all connected – has different parts which all serve different functions.

The type of dementia a person suffers from depends upon which brain function has become impaired – that is, which part of the brain has become diseased. You can start to spot early signs of dementia or disease by identifying the impairments. The main parts of the brain and their functions are:

The Brain Stem

At the base of the brain, this area controls your automatic body functions such as heartbeat and breathing.

The Cerebellum

Is responsible for your balance and posture

The Limbic System

Lies deep inside the brain, includes the hippocampus (the key to your memory) and the amygdala (which plays a role in your emotional health)

The Cerebrum

Compromises the cerebral hemispheres that make up three quarters of the whole brain. The cerebrum is responsible for consciousness, memory, reasoning, language, and social skills. The left cerebral hemisphere is responsible for language; while the right governs our understanding of where we are in relation to the things around us.

The Cortex

Is a thin layer of grey matter covering the cerebrum and containing billions of brain cells. Beneath the grey matter of the cortex is white matter, which is made up of bundles of nerve fibres. These fibres transport nerve signals between parts of the cortex and from the cortex to other parts of the brain.

The Lobes

Which are located in the cerebrum. There are four lobes in each cerebral hemisphere (right and left) with each one having its own vital role to play, as well as working in conjunction with the other lobes:

The Occipital Lobe – at the back of the brain deals with visual information

The Parietal Lobe – in the upper rear part of the cerebrum, handles information from your other senses and enables you to know how to pick up a fork to eat with, or to put one leg in front of the other to walk. You use your left parietal lobe to read, write and process numbers while your right parietal lobe helps you recognise objects as being three-dimensional.

The Temporal Lobe – on either side of your brain (near your temples), these are themselves divided into sections that govern different brain functions including the hippocampus (crucial for forming new memories) which lies inside the temporal lobes, as well as the outer part of the temporal lobe which is where you store your general knowledge or semantic memory. Again, within the semantic memory, the different sides of the brain (left and right) have different functions. The left side stores facts, word meanings and names of objects while the right stores the visual memories that help you recognise familiar faces and objects.

The Frontal Lobe – forms the large and complex management centre of your brain, helping you to solve problems and make decisions. You use this management centre to follow the steps of a familiar task as well as it helping to keep you focused to complete the task, learn a new one or develop complex skills until they become automatic – like learning to drive.

The reason it’s important to recognise the different areas of the brain, especially when it comes to dementia, is you can notice when something is not quite right with a particular function; for example, if your memory is not what it used to be or if you are feeling more reluctant to engage with life or socialising.

Frontotemporal dementia is the second most common cause of dementia in the under 65’s, but less common in older people. This is caused when abnormal proteins prevent the brain cells from communicating with each other as they should. One-third of cases are thought to be genetic. Symptoms may include personality changes, repetitive behaviour, changes in appetite and difficulties with decision making, problem-solving and concentration. 
This form of dementia may be confused with depression, psychosis, or obsessive-compulsive behaviour.

As a nutrition clinic, the aspect of self-care in preventing dementia we are most interested in is, of course, diet – and we believe that what you eat can have a huge impact on the health of your brain.

Filed Under: Brain Health, General Health, Womens Health

Glenville Nutrition Clinic,
76 Mount Pleasant Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1RJ
Phone: 01892 515905

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