A Danish study found that newborns with a low concentration of vitamin D had a high likelihood of schizophrenia. According to scientific reports, supplementation with vitamin D during pregnancy protects children from developing schizophrenia.
What are the beneficial effects of vitamin D?
Over the past 10 years, it has been increasingly recognized that some diseases are caused by a lack of light in modern societies. Therefore, the daily recommended daily intake of vitamin D is becoming a subject of discussion among scientists and medical professionals.
Vitamin D plays an important role in regulating blood calcium and bone formation. Deficiency leads to rickets in children in the medium term and osteomalacia in adults in the long term.
Possible further health effects are the subject of modern scientific research.
Adequate amounts of sunlight are required to produce Vitamin D. The shorter the time a person spends in direct sunlight, the greater the need.
The production of vitamin D in the skin is not necessarily proportional to the time spent in the sun. It directly depends, in particular, on the content of 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin of the precursor.
How does vitamin D deficiency increase the risk of schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is one of the mysterious mental disorders, the cause of which is unknown. Epidemiological studies show that the disease is more common in higher latitudes. Also, children born in winter or spring are more likely to get schizophrenia.
Life in large cities is a risk factor for schizophrenia, which is also associated with a lack of light.
Samples of the dried blood of newborns have been archived in Denmark since 1981. This fact allowed a group of scientists to determine the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and schizophrenia. Specialists conducted both laboratory and clinical studies.
They determined the concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (HVD) in 1,302 newborns who subsequently developed schizophrenia. Scientists compared it with the values of GVD from the same large control group that did not have schizophrenia.
Result: "every 5 newborn with low GVD values (less than 20.4 nmol / l) subsequently develops schizophrenia." Vitamin D deficiency increases your risk of developing a mental illness by 44%.
Does fish oil prevent psychosis?
In a small analysis of the Danish biobank, researchers also associated low levels of high blood pressure with an increase in overall incidence. At that time, a hypothesis appeared, the consensus of which the use of a large dose increases the risk of schizophrenia. She has not been confirmed at this time.
New research is consistent with modern concepts. According to scientists, schizophrenia is a violation of the development of the brain, presumably starting in the first year of a baby's life; period of greatest brain growth.
According to McGrath, a link between vitamin D deficiency and schizophrenia is biologically probable.
In the brain there are receptors for this vitamin that can be involved in the development of the disease.
Since vitamin D is delivered to the fetus only through maternal circulation before birth, supplementation prevents schizophrenia. This can only be proven in a clinical study. However, due to the rarity of the disease, the test must be carried out on a large number of participants. Children should be seen by a doctor until adulthood, which is associated with high costs.
What foods are rich in vitamin D?
It is theoretically possible to get enough vitamin D through food. Both animal and plant foods contain vitamin D. Vitamin D3 is found in beef, pork, and chicken, and vitamin D2 is found in beans, cabbage, and carrots.
High fat fish have relatively high levels of vitamin D3. Experts recommend taking fish products 1 or 2 times a week. Since it is more difficult to satisfy the need for vitamin D in winter, more frequent consumption is recommended.
There are foods fortified with vitamin D - margarine or some juices. To cover the daily need for vitamin D exclusively through diet, you will need about 22 liters of milk, 15 eggs or 5 kg of cheese. Therefore, in the winter months it is useful for children to take supplements containing vitamin D.
