According to a new study those who have lower vitamin D levels have a higher risk of cognitive decline in old age. The study has explained that supplements can boost the deficiency of vitamin D in the body.

The lower level of vitamin D results into Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. African origin people have been found to have the highest risk to be deficient on Vitamin D.

The study, published online in JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network journal, was carried out by researchers at the Rutgers University. Study authors wrote that lower levels of vitamin D are directly proportional to an instant decline in cognitive abilities in elder people. In old age, low vitamin D levels are common and are associated with speedy decline in episodic memory and executive function.

During the study 50% participants were Caucasian and 50% were African-American or Hispanic. Study findings have suggested that 505 of Americans above 65 have low levels of vitamin D.

Joshua Miller, presently professor and chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University, said, “Independent of race or ethnicity, baseline cognitive abilities and a host of other risk factors, vitamin D insufficiency was associated with significantly faster declines in both episodic memory and executive function performance”. He said that but on average, people having low vitamin D declined two to three times as fast as those with sufficient vitamin D.

Miller said so far there have been no serious researches to find out whether intake of vitamin D could slow down or stop memory loss or not.