Some time ago in several of my blogs I discussed the possible link between deficiencies of Vitamin D and several neurological diseases, namely Alzheimer's, autism and Parkinsonism . From my recent - I must confess -a rather cursory internet literature research, I have not come across any editorials and/or scientific studies that would suggest reputable medical research centres are pursuing this area or medical research. That is unfortunate since the demographic data would suggest that Alzheimer's is now the 4th cause of death among women over the age of 85. In Canada it is predicted that the care of the elderly specifically those diagnosed with Alzheimer's will increase from its present budget of 30 billion to over 300 billion within 2 decades. and this could even bankrupt our publicly financed healthcare system.. Also it would appear and the prevalence of autism-especially among our youth is also rapidly increasing.
Since the laboratory test for the serum level of vitamin D is a relative simple and low cost biochemical test , one would think that if not the healthcare workers, at least the governments who is the provider of our healthcare would require that it be performed as a mandatory screening test- just like serum glucose levels for excluding diabetis.
Because Vitamin D- the sunshine hormone- also plays a significant role in osteoporosis we could find that screening for it supplementing when a low level is found could reduce the incidence of hip, pelvic and other features especially in the elderly
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