Vitamin D for Healthy Brains
VDR is today's short topic. VDR is vitamin D receptor. The brain contains specific receptors for vitamin D. These receptors for vitamin D are scattered in many areas of the brain and are considered vital to protecting brain tissue. It is being investigated for its relationship to aging, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other issues.
The role of vitamin D in the body is very diverse and teasing out factors related to brain health and vitamin D has taken some detective work in many studies.
What we know so far is that chronic vitamin D deficiency is linked to increased probability of dementia, depression, autism, schizophrenic-like disorders, hypoxic brain injury and other mental illness.
Vitamin D is easy to test and easy to supplement. In most states you can order basic blood tests through Direct Labs. We like to see levels in the range of 80 ng/ml. Our recommendation is different than what you will see with a web search. Researchers who deal with neurological problems know that 40 or 50 is too low to get all the benefits. We often see levels closer to 20 when we check people who don’t take their supplements.
We have seen cases where a person has to take 10,000+ IUs per day to keep levels at a healthy level. More common is 5,000 IUs per day. You will need a blood test to see where you are and then another blood test after you have been taking your supplement for a couple of months.
- BetterGenix Vitamin D3 120c
