Shedding new light on dementia

Key staff

Dr David Llewellyn

By conducting the first study discovering a link between low vitamin D levels and cognitive decline in the elderly, a team of medical researchers led by Dr David Llewellyn at the may have uncovered a simple way to treat people at risk of dementia. Vitamin D protects the brain and is naturally produced by our bodies on exposure to sunlight, but this process becomes less efficient with age, leading to low levels. With funding from the US Alzheimer’s Association the team is now conducting studies to investigate whether vitamin D supplements offer a cheap and effective way to protect against dementia.