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Vitamine D tegen de ziekte van Parkinson*
Uit een Finse studie onder ruim drieduizend gezonde Finnen die dertig jaar gevolgd werden blijkt dat lage bloedwaarden vitamine D een duidelijk hogere kans geeft op het krijgen van de ziekte van Parkinson. Deelnemers met de hoogste bloedwaarden vitamine D hadden 67% minder kans om de ziekte van Parkinson te ontwikkelen dan zij met de laagste bloedwaarden vitamine D. Gemiddeld hadden de deelnemers slechts de helft van normaal voldoende bloedwaarden vitamine D, op zich niet zo vreemd gelet op de geografische ligging van Finland.
Greater levels of vitamin D have been linked to a lower risk of Parkinson's disease in a study from Finland where low sunlight leads to a chronic lack of the nutrient, researchers said.
Scientists from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, first hypothesised that Parkinson's "may be caused by a continuously inadequate vitamin D status leading to a chronic loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain."
Vitamin D, supplied chiefly by the sun's ultraviolet rays and a small range of foods, is known to play a role in bone health and may also be linked to cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.
Vitamin D lowers risk by 67% 
The Finnish study, published in the Archives of Neurology, followed 3,173 Parkinson's-free Finnish men and women aged 50-79 over a 29-year period from 1978-2007. 
At the end of the study 50 participants had developed the disease.
After adjusting for potentially related factors, including physical activity and body mass index, those with the highest levels of vitamin D (top 25% of the group) were found to have a 67% lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease than those with the lowest level of the vitamin (bottom 25 percent), the study said.
Nutrients shown to protect the brain 
The researchers could not explain how vitamin D levels may affect Parkinson's risk, but said the nutrient "has been shown to exert a protective effect on the brain through antioxidant activities, regulation of calcium levels, detoxification, modulation of the immune system and enhanced conduction of electricity through neurons."
"In intervention trials focusing on effects of vitamin D supplements, the incidence of Parkinson disease merits follow up," they added.
"This study was carried out in Finland, an area with restricted sunlight exposure, and is thus based on a population with a continuously low vitamin D status," about half of the suggested optimal level, researchers said. (Oktober 2010)