(Best Syndication News) Although Vitamin D is important for bone and muscle health, researchers are now saying that it is very important for the heart as well. Linus C Pauling (February 28, 1901 – August 19, 1994) illustrated the importance of vitamin C for health while new researchers at the Mid American Heart Institute in Kansas are recognizing that vitamin D plays a very important role in our wellbeing.
“Vitamin D deficiency is an unrecognized, emerging cardiovascular risk factor, which should be screened for and treated,” said James H. O’Keefe, M.D., cardiologist and director of Preventive Cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO. O’Keefe says that a deficiency of the vitamin increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
“Vitamin D is easy to assess, and supplementation is simple, safe and inexpensive,” O’Keefe added. Viactiv, the common calcium supplement recently doubled the vitamin d in their chews.
Half of all adults and 30 percent of the children and teenagers in the United States have a vitamin D deficiency. Data from the Framingham Heart Study suggested that participants below 15 ng/ml were twice as likely to experience a heart attack, stroke or other CV event within the next five years when compared to those with higher levels.
“Restoring vitamin D levels to normal is important in maintaining good musculoskeletal health, and it may also improve heart health and prognosis,” said Dr. O’Keefe. “We need large randomized controlled trials to determine whether or not vitamin D supplementation can actually reduce future heart disease and deaths.”
From the report:
In the absence of clinical guidelines, the authors outline specific recommendations for restoring and maintaining optimal vitamin D levels in CV patients. These patients should initially be treated with 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 or D3 once weekly for 8 to 12 weeks. Maintenance therapy should be continued using one of the following strategies:
1) 50,000 IU vitamin D2 or D3every 2 weeks;
2) 1,000 to 2,000 IU vitamin D3 daily;
3) Sunlight exposure for 10 minutes for Caucasian patients (longer for people with increased skin pigmentation) between the hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Vitamin D supplements appear to be safe. In rare cases, vitamin D toxicity (causing high calcium levels and kidney stones) is possible, but only when taking in excess of 20,000 units a day.
The research and recommendations are published in the December, 9, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC)
By Jeffrey Workmman
Beest Syndication News Health Writer
Tags: american heart, calcium supplement, cardiologist, cardiovascular risk factor, framingham heart study, health researchers, heart health, kansas city mo, maintenance therapy, mid america heart institute, muscle health, musculoskeletal health, next five years, o keefe, pauling, preventive cardiology, randomized controlled trials, risk of cardiovascular disease, vitamin d deficiency, vitamin d2