Sufficient intake of vitamin C might be linked to better brain health in later life. The findings of a new study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Japanese researchers examined over 2,000 adults aged 64 and older, comparing vitamin C levels in their blood plasma with brain MRI data.
They found that participants with lower vitamin C levels tended to have smaller volumes of gray matter. They also exhibited weaker connections within the brain’s default mode network – a collection of regions involved in functions like attention and autobiographical memory.
After accounting for factors influencing brain health, including age, physical activity, and education level, these associations persisted.
“This discovery generates an exciting hypothesis that a diet rich in vitamin C could play a supportive role in maintaining brain health and mitigating age-related cognitive decline in older adults,” said study co-author Tomohiro Shintaku of the Graduate School of Medicine at Hirosaki University in Japan.
While the study’s results suggest that maintaining adequate vitamin C levels may promote healthy brain aging, the research does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
The authors stated that larger and more varied studies are needed to confirm their conclusions.
“What struck me most about this research was that we were able to identify these subtle yet significant associations between a single nutritional factor and large-scale brain networks, using a robust cohort of over 2,000 older adults living in a single community,” Shintaku said. “It really highlights the potential impact of our daily dietary habits on our brain structure.”
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