Not taking a 3p supplement every day could ‘raise your risk of dementia by 25%’

NOT taking a vitamin D supplement could raise your risk of dementia, a study suggests.

People with deficiencies of the vital nutrient were up to a quarter more likely to suffer the memory-robbing condition, German researchers found.

GettyTaking a vitamin D supplement could reduce your risk of dementia, a study suggests[/caption]

But taking the 3p pills regularly reduced the risk of deficiency from 21.5 per cent in the general population to 6.9 per cent in those who were supplementing.

Dr L-Ju Chen, of the German Cancer Research Center, said: “Our findings indicate potential benefits of vitamin D supplementation for dementia prevention.”

Around 944,000 Brits are currently living with dementia and experts predict the numbers will exceed one million by the end of the decade.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of the condition, and is thought to be caused by build-ups of proteins in the brain, including tau and amyloid.

There is currently no cure for the disease, although three promising drugs to slow down its progress are currently in trials.

Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body, which are needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.

Deficiencies can cause bone deformities like rickets in children and bone pain from osteomalacia in adults.

The Government recommends Brits take a daily supplement during autumn and winter, because the main source of vitamin D comes from the sun.

You can purchase a tub of 90 10mcg Vitamin D tablets for £2.75 at Boots. This works out at just over 3p per pill.

The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at how vitamin D affects people’s risk of dementia.

Researchers tracked health data in 269,229 Brits aged 55 or over and asked them what supplements they took.

They measured their blood vitamin D levels to see whether they were deficient and looked at whether they developed dementia over 13 to 16 years.

People with vitamin D deficiencies were between 19 and 25 per cent more likely to suffer dementia than those with healthy levels of the nutrient.

Regularly supplementing with vitamin D reduced the risk but results “did not reach statistical significance”, the researchers said.

Dr Chen said that while the results suggest supplementing could be of benefit, “randomised controlled trials are essential for definitive evidence”.