Depression Linked to Vitamin D Deficiency, Study Says

Depression Linked to Vitamin D Deficiency, Study Says
D DEFICIENCY: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a variety of health problems, including depression. (Louise McCoy/The Epoch Times)
11/29/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/VitaminD.JPG" alt="D DEFICIENCY: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a variety of health problems, including depression. (Louise McCoy/The Epoch Times)" title="D DEFICIENCY: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a variety of health problems, including depression. (Louise McCoy/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1811507"/></a>
D DEFICIENCY: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a variety of health problems, including depression. (Louise McCoy/The Epoch Times)

Depression is likely to occur more often in people who get less vitamin D, a recent report has found.

Other studies have found that vitamin D deficiencies have been linked to an increase in depression. However, researchers at Georgia State University provided more-conclusive evidence to support the vitamin D-depression link in research published earlier this month.

The study found that those with a significant deficiency in the vitamin had an 85 percent chance of being depressed.

Researchers evaluated nearly 8,000 non-institutionalized people in the United States aged 15 to 39 to come up with their findings.

According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamin D is acquired via sunlight exposure, certain foods, and supplements. Some types of fish—tuna, salmon, and mackerel, for example—are among the best sources.

HealthDay News, citing another recent study, reports that one’s genetics do influence vitamin D levels in the winter, but that other environmental factors have more of an impact on vitamin D levels in the summer.  

The report said that Emory University scientists examined 310 identical twins and 200 nonidentical twins with an average age of 55. The research found that the concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the blood was adequate, but levels are higher in the summertime than in the wintertime.

The study found that 70 percent of wintertime vitamin D fluctuations were attributed to genetics, but none of the summertime variations were due to genes. Other factors like sunlight exposure and diet were the determining factors in the summer.

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