Background: The relationship between vitamin intake and depression has attracted increasing attention. However, several studies examining such relationship among populations at different age groups have produced inconsistent findings. This study was aimed to investigate the cross-sectional association between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms in US adults.
Methods: We used the data from a nationally representative sample of 11,687 adults from the 2013 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Vitamin K intake was assessed by the 24-h dietary recall at the first day. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Logistic regression and generalized additive model were used to examine the association between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms.
Results: The weighted prevalence of depressive symptoms was 10.2% (8.0% in men and 12.0% in women). We observed a significant inverse linear relationship between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms in models adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational status, family poverty income ratio (PIR), home status, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, physical activity, sleep disorders, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. The odds ratios (OR) (95% CI) for the highest compared with the lowest quartile of vitamin K intake was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.52, 0.89, p-trend < 0.05). The association was similar in subgroups stratified by age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational status, PIR, home status, BMI, smoking status, physical activity, sleep disorders, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.
Conclusion: Vitamin K intake was inversely and independently associated with the odds of depressive symptoms in the US adults. Prospective studies are warranted to confirm our findings.
I'll mention here that while this study puts smoking as a risk factor, it has been long observed that smokers have relative immunity to AD. Nicotine is neuroprotective, and lowers the risk of AD by more than half.
The non-modifiable factors of age and family history are much much the stronger. (They didn't need to wait decades to have a study to discern those; they are obvious.)
The most prominent modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) in the US changed during the past decade, with midlife obesity overtaking physical inactivity at the top of the list.
An analysis of data from 378 615 respondents in the 2018 US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System annual survey evaluated the relative contribution of 8 modifiable risk factors—physical inactivity, current smoking, depression, low education, diabetes, midlife obesity, midlife hypertension, and hearing loss—to ADRD risk.
Garlic increases serotonin concentrations in the brain (Haider et al. 2008). High serotonin concentrations are associated with improved brain functions such as learning, memory and mood.
Aged garlic extract inhibits cortical acetylcholinesterase (AchE) while increasing glutathione (GSH) concentrations (Mukherjee and Banerjee 2013). GSH is a potent internal antioxidant that protects brain cells from free radical damage. Some treatments for Alzheimer's disease use AchE inhibition. AchE inhibition may affect executive and attentional cognitive functions (Bohnen et al. 2005).
Ethyl acetate extracts from aged garlic protects nerve cells from Aβ-induced ROS generation in vitro (Jeong et al. 2013).
Aged garlic compounds, in particular S-allyl-L-cysteine, protects neural cells from ROS. Interestingly, pretreatment of cells with garlic extract protected 80% of cells from ROS-mediated damage. It also protected pre-synaptic proteins (Ray et al. 2011). This may be beneficial in treating Alzheimer's Disease (Chauhan and Sandoval 2007, Ray et al. 2011).
Garlic, Allium sativum, has long been utilized for a number of medicinal purposes around the world, and its medical benefits have been well documented. The health benefits of garlic likely arise from a wide variety of components, possibly working synergistically. Garlic and garlic extracts, especially aged garlic extracts (AGEs), are rich in bioactive compounds, with potent anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective activities. In light of these effects, garlic and its components have been examined in experimental models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia without therapy, and a growing health concern in aging societies. With the aim of offering an updated overview, this paper reviews the chemical composition, metabolism and bioavailability of garlic bioactive compounds. In addition, it provides an overview of signaling mechanisms triggered by garlic derivatives, with a focus on allicin and AGE, to improve learning and memory.
True_Garen OP t1_jeday1w wrote
Reply to Association between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms in US adults: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013–2018 by True_Garen
Background: The relationship between vitamin intake and depression has attracted increasing attention. However, several studies examining such relationship among populations at different age groups have produced inconsistent findings. This study was aimed to investigate the cross-sectional association between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms in US adults.
Methods: We used the data from a nationally representative sample of 11,687 adults from the 2013 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Vitamin K intake was assessed by the 24-h dietary recall at the first day. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Logistic regression and generalized additive model were used to examine the association between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms.
Results: The weighted prevalence of depressive symptoms was 10.2% (8.0% in men and 12.0% in women). We observed a significant inverse linear relationship between vitamin K intake and depressive symptoms in models adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational status, family poverty income ratio (PIR), home status, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, physical activity, sleep disorders, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. The odds ratios (OR) (95% CI) for the highest compared with the lowest quartile of vitamin K intake was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.52, 0.89, p-trend < 0.05). The association was similar in subgroups stratified by age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational status, PIR, home status, BMI, smoking status, physical activity, sleep disorders, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.
Conclusion: Vitamin K intake was inversely and independently associated with the odds of depressive symptoms in the US adults. Prospective studies are warranted to confirm our findings.