Elderly people who take vitamin D supplements long-term and regularly have 1.8 times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia compared with those who do not, National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) scientists said yesterday.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that 7.78 percent of Taiwanese aged 65 or older have some form of dementia.
Vitamin D plays a role in maintaining cognitive function, and many studies have found that vitamin D deficiency correlates with an increased risk of dementia, leading many people to take the vitamin to prevent the disease, NHRI Institute of Molecular and Genomic Medicine researcher Juang Jyh-lyh (莊志立) said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times.
However, a study led by Juang and NHRI National Center for Geriatrics and Welfare Research scientist Hsu Chih-cheng (許志成), using the National Health Insurance database, found that elderly people who took a 0.25mg vitamin D3 supplement 146 days or more each year had 1.8 times the risk of developing dementia compared with those who did not take the supplement.
Additionally, people with dementia who took vitamin D3 had a 2.17 times greater risk of death, he said.
Juang said his research team conducted additional studies that experimented on mice, finding that mice with Alzheimer’s disease that were fed a vitamin D-sufficient diet showed significantly lower levels of serum vitamin D.
When vitamin D was decreased in the mice, the number of the vitamin’s binding receptors in the brain increased in the same plaques considered a trigger for Alzheimer’s disease, he said.
Overall, the study seems to show that vitamin D deficiency might be a result rather than a cause of Alzheimer’s disease, and that vitamin D supplements could hasten brain degeneration in people who have the condition.
However, Juang added that the findings do not suggest that vitamin D supplements have no benefit, as they could be valuable in other areas of health.
Juang said that he would remind people not to over-use vitamin D supplements.
Those who might be vulnerable to dementia should re-evaluate the need for the vitamin and consult a physician before taking the supplement, he said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to