Dr. Jacqueline Pettersen is the first North American researcher to win the Wolfgang Hevert Prize. The prize, which comes with an endowment of 10,000 Euros, is awarded to a planned scientific study looking to clarify questions in the field of natural medicine and associated therapies.
This builds on an already successful 2018 for Dr. Pettersen, who won the Fritz Wörwag Research Prize in May.
She will look to build on prior research on vitamin D and cognition, including vitamin K2 into the mix, as compared to a placebo control in normal healthy adults.
“There is some suggestion that vitamin K2 may also have beneficial effects in the brain and on cognition, and these effect may possible be additive or even synergistic with those of vitamin D,” Dr. Pettersen said.
“So I wanted to study this in more detail.”
Insufficiencies of both nutrients are thought to be common worldwide and also associated with cognitive decline and dementia. Northern British Columbians, according to Dr. Pettersen, could benefit from this research due to one factor.
“At least probably eight months of the year in Prince George, we don’t have effective sunlight. The UVB rays aren’t strong enough to synthesize vitamin D in sufficient amounts so we must obtain our vitamin D either from the little bit that we can get from food or from supplements,” she explained.
“[Vitamin] K2 is also thought to be consumed in insufficient amounts because it is found in very few food sources, some of which people shy away from for health reasons like certain cheeses, for example.”
Dr. Pettersen’s study should take about two years once ready. Following this, Dr. Pettersen said studies could look at whether sufficiency of the two nutrients may be part of an effective strategy to prevent age-related cognitive decline and dementia.
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