In a recent study issue of the Journal Archives of Neurology, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine report that men and women with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease have a greater incidence of vitamin D insufficiency compared with healhty people. The lead researcher, Marian Evatt, MD reported that "the study found that vitamin D insufficiency may have a unique association with Parkinson's"
Similar information was presented at a medical conference I attended a couple of weeks ago. The recommendation from the speakers was to ask your doctor to check your Vitamin D levels. Even those people living in sunny States like Arizona or California are not immune from this defficiency epidemic. Vitamin D defficiency is also linked to mood disorders and depression. For those of us who enjoy great weather most of the year, 20-30 minutes in the sun may not be sufficient and adding a daily supplementation of Vitamin D to our diet may just be what our bodies were needing.