• Posted June 11, 2026

Vitamin C May Be Key To A Healthier Brain As You Age

Getting enough vitamin C may be linked to better brain health as we age.

Researchers in Japan studied more than 2,000 adults over the age of 64, comparing vitamin C levels in their blood plasma to MRI scans of their brains.

They found that participants with lower vitamin C levels tended to have lower gray matter volume. They also had weaker connectivity within the brain's default mode network — a collection of regions involved in functions such as attention and autobiographical memory.

After accounting for factors that can influence brain health, including age, physical activity and education level, those links remained.

"This finding generates the exciting hypothesis that a diet rich in vitamin C might play a supportive role in maintaining brain health and mitigating age-related cognitive decline in older adults," said study coauthor Tomohiro Shintaku of the Graduate School of Medicine at Hirosaki University in Japan.

While the results suggest that maintaining adequate vitamin C levels could help support healthy brain aging, the study does not prove cause and effect. 

The authors said larger, more diverse studies are needed to confirm their findings.

"What I found most fascinating about this research is that we were able to detect these subtle but significant associations between a single nutritional factor and large-scale brain networks by utilizing a robust, community-based cohort of over 2,000 older adults," Shintaku said. "It truly highlights the potential impact of our everyday dietary habits on our brain structures."

The study was published June 10 in the journal PLOS ONE.

More information

The Alzheimer's Association has more on brain health.

SOURCE: HealthDay TV, June 11, 2026