An online article Monday from Boston’s most-read newspaper detailed the growing body of evidence that vitamin D impacts brain function through regulation of the production of serotonin.

According to The Boston Globe, researchers Rhonda P. Patrick from the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, Calif., has found that, while the degree of influence of vitamin D is still uncertain, the impact of serotonin production on proper brain function is clear.

“It is very important for guiding [where] neurons . . . go in the brain and how they shape the structure and the wiring of the brain,” Patrick told The Globe. “Without adequate serotonin in that developing fetus, the brain . . . doesn’t develop normally.”

Dr. Mark Haussler of the University of Arizona College of Medicine and others have conducted research that supports Patrick’s hypothesis about the impact of vitamin D. Haussler found that vitamin D enhanced the ability of brain cells to produce serotonin by between two and 30 times as much.

“When I was young, my mother would say, ‘Mark, go out in the sun; you’ll feel better,’ ” Haussler told The Globe. “Well, you know, I usually did, and that’s a common-sense-type thing, but why? Why do we feel better when we go out in the sun? Sun makes vitamin D in your skin.”

Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, also agrees that the hypothesis is significant and could be vital to better understanding various mental health issues.

“This work by Ames and Patrick is significant because it describes a potential pathway linking vitamin D with serious mental conditions, and may explain some of the features of these diseases,” Willett said in an e-mail to The Globe.

Click here to read the article from The Boston Globe.

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