Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. 55% of Parkinson’s patients were insufficient in vitamin D compared to 41.2% in the Alzheimer patients and 36.4% in the control group.
As one of the most common nervous system disorders in the elderly, Parkinson’s Disease most often develops after the age of 50. It is characterized by a breakdown of the area of the brain that produces the nerve chemical dopamine, which helps control movement (1). The symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease start to show when 60-80% of the dopamine-producing part of the brain is destroyed and the body can no longer produce enough dopamine (2).
The latest statistics regarding the cost of Parkinson’s Disease is $25 billion per year, which breaks down to $25,000 per patient per year (3). Research (4) suggests that decreased vitamin D blood levels may play a role in exacerbating Parkinson’s Disease.
In the study, researchers analyzed vitamin D blood levels of 100 patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (average age of 66), 100 patients with Parkinson’s Disease (average age of 65), and 100 control patients (who did not have Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s Disease, average age of 65) from the Clinical Research in Neurology database maintained by the Department of Neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine (5). They defined vitamin D “insufficiency” as having blood levels < 30 nanograms/milliliter, as defined in previous research (6).
Across the groups as a whole, the control group had, on average, 16% higher vitamin D levels than the Parkinson’s group (37.0 vs 31.9 ng/mL, p = 0.01) and 6.3% higher levels than the Alzheimer’s Group, though it was not statistically significant (37.0 vs 34.8 ng/mL, p = 0.30). Within the groups, however, 55% of Parkinson’s patients were insufficient (p = 0.008) compared to 41.2% of Alzheimer’s patients, though still not statistically significant (p = 0.48) and 36.4% in the control group.
A possible explanation by the researchers regarding the significance of vitamin D insufficiency in the Parkinson’s patients versus the Alzheimer’s patients, is that the mobility problems that are characteristic in Parkinson’s patients causes a much more drastic decrease in physical activity, especially outdoors. Those with more outdoor activity would get more sun exposure which would convert into vitamin D in the skin.
They concluded that “these findings support the previously suggested need [7] for further studies to assess what contribution a low [vitamin D blood concentration] adds to the risk of developing PD (vs. other neurodegenerative disorders)”. They added that this “highlights the importance of routinely checking [vitamin D blood levels], particularly in elderly patients.”
Source: Evatt, Marian L., et al. “Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in patients with Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease.” Archives of neurology 65.10 (2008): 1348-1352.
©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
Posted November 28, 2012.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com
References:
- “Parkinson’s Disease” posted on the U.S. Library of Medicine’s website.
- “PD 101” posted on the National Parkinson’s Disease website.
- “Direct and Indirect Cost of Parkinson Disease” posted on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website. Bookshelf ID: NBK27880.
- Evatt ML. Prevalence of vitamin d insufficiency in patients with Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease. Arch Neurol 2008;65(10):1348-52.
- “Emory Neurology Database” posted on Emory University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
- Holick MF. Vitamin D deficiency. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(3):266-281.
- Newmark HL, Newmark J. Vitamin D and Parkinson’s disease: a hypothesis. Mov Disord. 2007;22(4):461-468.
