A study made of 3,000 European men found that taking vitamin D helps them be more mentally agile in later years.

The research was conducted by David Lee and his colleagues at the University of Manchester in United Kingdom, and was published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

News wire Reuters reported that the researchers “compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 European men aged 40 to 79 and found those with low vitamin D levels did more poorly on a task designed to test mental agility.”

According to Lee, differences in educational levels, physical activity and depression levels were all taken into account. But even after adjusting all the health and lifestyle factors, the researchers still found that there was a link between vitamin D and the cognitive outcome of the study.

The researchers believed that taking vitamin D helps older folk stay mentally active because it relates to hormone activity or neuron production in the brain.

Vitamin D is produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight, or by eating oily fish, eggs, milk, breakfast cereal, orange juice and margarine.