Wednesday Dec 11, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- High doses of vitamin D supplements should be used as an adjunct therapy for multiple sclerosis, a study report in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology suggests.

N. S. Koven from Program of Neuroscience, Bates College in Lewiston, ME and colleagues conducted the small trial and found the serum vitamin D level was positively correlated with performance on immediate and delayed recall trials of the Rey Complex Figure Test in patients with multiple sclerosis.  The association was still significant after adjustment for intelligence and disease duration.

According to the report, memory disturbance is commonly seen in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and recent research on dementia has already suggested that vitamin D may play a beneficial role in long term memory.

However, it remains unknown how vitamin D can affect the cognitive function in multiple sclerosis patients even though prior studies suggest that vitamin D can ameliorate physical impairment in MS patients.

The current trial was intended to examine the association between plasma levels of vitamin D and performance of verbal and nonverbal tests of long term memory in MS patients.

For the trial, 35 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis were tested for cognitive functions and measured for serum vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels.   In addition to memory assessment, intellectual functioning and mood were also assessed.

Vitamin D levels were found positively associated with performance on immediate and delayed recall trials of the Rey Complex Figure Test after adjustment for intelligence and disease duration.

However, vitamin D levels were neither associated with mood, intelligence or verbal memory performance on the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition.

The trial concluded "Higher vitamin D level was associated with better nonverbal long-term memory performance in MS, particularly in conditions when no aid was given to help retrieval."

This study adds to a growing body of evidence to suggest that vitamin D is neuroprotective and may be considered as an adjunct treatment for multiple sclerosis. (David Liu, PHD)