Vitamin D: What It Is and What It Does

Dr. Marian Evatt of Emory University describes Vitamin D -- which as it turns out, is not exactly a "vitamin," strictly speaking. Evatt talks about Vitamin D's role in the body, how our understanding has changed over time, and studies ongoing to study its involvement in diseases like Parkinson's.

Background

A new study on vitamin D levels and Parkinson's disease risk points to the need for further research on whether vitamin D supplements can protect against the movement disorder, according to an editorial in the July 2010 issue of Archives of Neurology.

The author of the editorial is Marian Evatt, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine and director of the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center's Movement Disorders Clinic.

At Emory, Evatt and colleagues are conducting a pilot clinical trial (info: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00571285), which examines the effects of vitamin D supplementation on patients with Parkinson's disease who have low vitamin D levels as well as conducting further epidemiological studies of vitamin D in Parkinson's disease.

Related Link

Low Vitamin D Levels Are Risk for Parkinson's Disease, New Evidence Shows
http://shared.web.emory.edu/whsc/news/releases/2010/07/low-vitamin-d-levels-a...

Video - Vitamin D Study in Finland: Implications for the Rest of the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlG3fOdvPmw

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• vitamin d
• miriam evatt
• neurology
• parkinson's disease
• archives of neurology
• editorial
• research study
• nutrition