Lack of Vitamin D May Precede Onset of Parkinson's
Lee Swanson Research Update
"Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with a variety of clinical disorders and chronic diseases, including impaired balance, decreased muscle strength, mood and cognitive dysfunction and autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes types 1 and 2," the study authors wrote as background information for their research. "Vitamin D insufficiency has been reported to be more common in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) than in healthy control subjects, but it is not clear whether having a chronic disease causing reduced mobility contributes to this relatively high prevalence."
The researchers looked at 157 people with early, untreated Parkinson’s disease and found that 69.4% had some lack of vitamin D and 26.1% had vitamin D deficiency at the start of the study.
"At the end point/final visit, these percentages fell to 51.6% and seven percent respectively," wrote Dr. Marian L. Evatt, of Emory University School of Medicine and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and colleagues.
"Contrary to our expectations that vitamin D levels might decrease over time because of disease-related inactivity and reduced sun exposure, vitamin D levels increased over the study period," the researchers wrote.
These findings are consistent with the possibility that long-term insufficiency is present before the clinical manifestations of PD and may play a role in the pathogenesis of PD," they added.
Archives of Neurology 68(3):314-319, 2011
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March, 2011