Beyond Vitamin Status: Is There a Role for Vitamin D in Parkinson Disease?

Two years ago, Newmark and Newmark¹ hypothesized that insufficient vitamin D could play a role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease (PD). The study by Knekt et al² in this issue of the Archives is the first longitudinal analysis of vitamin D status as a risk of incident PD and examines a cohort of more than 3000 participants from the Mini-Finland Health Survey. As an important logical progression from previous epidemiological and animal studies of vitamin D and PD, Knekt and colleagues' study begins to address some of the questions posed by Newmark and Newmark.¹ Furthermore, it provides preliminary data supporting future interventional studies of the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of PD.