Scientists have identified a direct correlation between a vitamin D deficiency among elderly people with accelerated cognitive decline, particularly with memory loss traits that are typically linked with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Researchers from the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center and Rutgers University found that a vitamin D insufficiency is putting the elderly at risk, with those with it have a cognitive decline at three times the rate of their peers… Joshua Miller, professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the time when the research was conducted and now 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…” “This work, and that of others, suggests that there is enough evidence to recommend that people in their 60s and older discuss taking a daily vitamin D supplement with their physicians. Even if doing so proves to not be effective, there’s still very low health risk to doing it.”