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The latest study says Vitamin D may not really help you overcome depression and symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which is linked to reduced sunlight.

Exposure to sunlight stimulates vitamin D in the skin and a shortage of sunlight in the winter has been put forward as one possible cause of SAD.

However Warwick University Medical School researchers, led by Oscar Franco, have discovered low levels of vitamin D in the blood may not be connected to depression.

The team recruited more than 3,000 people and tested levels of vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) in the blood. They then carried out a questionnaire with the participants to assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms.

Vitamin D deficiency exists when the concentration of vitamin D in the blood serum occurs at 12 nanograms per ml or less.

Franco, assistant clinical professor in public health, said: “Few studies have explored the association between blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and depression in the general population.

“A deficiency of vitamin D has also been attributed to several chronic diseases, including osteoporosis, common cancers, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases,” he added.

This study was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, said a Warwick release.

The team recruited 3,262 community residents aged 50-70 from Beijing and Shanghai in China as part of the Nutrition and Health of Aging Population in China (NHAPC) project.

These findings have been published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

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