Vitamin D could play a central role in the development of alcohol abuse. This is the preliminary conclusion drawn by two Dutch scientists who took a closer look at the existing research on the topic of “alcohol and vitamin D”.
The amazing connection: Vitamin D plays an important role in the dopamine system. This is the nerve messenger system that is responsible for learning, reward – and addiction memory. The higher the vitamin D level, the greater the so-called dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex. This is the brain region where the reward system is located.
The researchers even go one better: the vitamin D levels in the blood do not necessarily say anything about the vitamin D levels in the brain. “The role of vitamin D in addictive diseases has been insufficiently researched so far,” the researchers regret. It would be urgent to conduct more studies on this topic and to find out, for example, whether patients should not receive much higher amounts of vitamin D than they have so far.
Primary source: Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2020 Nov 13;1-8. doi: 10.1017/neu.2020.41. Online ahead of print. Putative role of vitamin D in the mechanism of alcoholism and other addictions – a hypothesis
Secondary source (german)
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