Vitamin D Study in Finland: Implications for the Rest of the World

A new study on vitamin D levels and Parkinson's disease risk points to the need for further research on whether vitamin D supplements can protect against the movement disorder, according to an editorial in the July 2010 issue of Archives of Neurology. Dr. Marian Evatt, author of the editorial, discusses the details of the studied, carried out in Finland, and its implications on Parkinson's and general Vitamin D research. Background The study, also reported in Archives of Neurology, is the first to show that low vitamin D levels can help predict whether someone will later develop Parkinson's disease. Researchers at Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare measured vitamin D levels from more than 3000 people, using blood samples taken between 1978 and 1980, and then followed those people to see whether they developed Parkinson's. People with the lowest levels of vitamin D were three times more likely to develop Parkinson's, compared to the group with the highest levels. At Emory, Evatt and colleagues are conducting a pilot clinical trial, which examines the effects of vitamin D supplementation on patients with Parkinson's disease who have low vitamin D levels as well as conducting further epidemiological studies of vitamin D in Parkinson's disease. Related Links New Evidence Shows Low Vitamin D Levels Lead to Parkinson's Disease http://shared.web.emory.edu/whsc/news/releases/2010/07/low-vitamin-d-levels-are-risk-for-parkinsons-disease.html

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