Getting more of the "sunshine vitamin" may make you smarter later in life. A new study bolsters evidence vitamin D helps older people stay mentally fit.
Researchers compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 men aged 40 to 79, and found those with low vitamin D levels performed less well on a task designed to test mental agility. The findings are some of the strongest evidence yet of such a link, because of the size of the study and because the researchers adjusted for a number of lifestyle factors believed to affect mental ability.
The researchers do not know exactly how vitamin D and mental agility may be connected, but it could be connected to the vitamin's role in increasing certain hormonal activity, or it could have a protective effect on brain neurons.