Depression Favored by Low Vitamin D Intake

Investigators from the UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSMC) say that people who suffer from depression tend to exhibit lower-than-average levels of vitamin D, suggesting a potential connection between the two. Such a potential link is definitely worth investigating.

The study adds an interesting perspective to a body of works focused on determining the full extent of the effects that vitamin D – or lack thereof – has on the human body. Thus far, this class of chemicals has been linked to a wide array of effects, but experts suspect that they have yet to decipher everything.

Vitamin D is so important for the body that it is even produced naturally by the skin, when exposed to sunlight. Just 10 minutes of bathing in light every single day are enough to produce the entire amount of the stuff that the body needs for 24 hours.

In addition, vitamin D can also be found in fortified milk, in various types of fish, and in numerous fruits and vegetables. Multiple disorders, including osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases and neurological conditions have been linked with low levels of vitamin D in the body.

Details of the new UTSMC study are published in the latest issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. This is not the first investigation to assess a potential correlation between vitamin D and depression, but past investigations have produced conflicting results.

This issue is very serious, because depression – from its mildest to its most severe form – affects about 10 percent of the adult population in the United States. Similar rates can be encountered in most of the developed world.

“Our findings suggest that screening for vitamin D levels in depressed patients – and perhaps screening for depression in people with low vitamin D levels – might be useful,” Dr. E. Sherwood Brown says.

The expert holds an appointment as a professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern, and was also a senior author of the research effort. “But we don’t have enough information yet to recommend going out and taking supplements,” he goes on to explain.

The study covered data collected between late 2006 and late 2010, covering the cases of nearly 12,600 patients, PsychCentral reports.

The team searched for correlations between vitamin D intake and the incidence of depression in the test group, and discovered that increased amounts of the chemical in the blood translated into lower chances of that person suffering from depression.