Vitamin Information Center

During these gray, overcast days, we almost hate to tell you about yet another study touting the health benefits of the “sunshine vitamin” — but we will anyway.

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reveals that people who have a deficiency in vitamin D are more prone to cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Experts are increasingly telling us that vitamin D is essential for our health, in ways that were previously unrecognized. The body of evidence just keeps growing.

People should have between 20 and 30 nanograms per millimeter of the vitamin in their blood, most doctors believe. The Institute of Medicine recommends 200 units daily of vitamin D in children and adults up to age 50, and 400 to 600 units for older adults. That means taking daily supplements, especially in sun-starved Seattle.

Researchers involved in the new study suggest that patients with vitamin D levels below 15 ng/ml were twice as likely to experience a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular event within the next five years compared to those with higher levels. The risk remained unchanged even when they adjusted for traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

Half of U.S. adults and 30 percent of children and teenagers have low levels of vitamin D, which activate the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system — predisposing patients to hypertension and a stiffening and thickening of the heart and blood vessels, researchers said.

Vitamin D is found in fish, eggs, fortified milk and other foods. The sun also contributes significantly to the body’s production of vitamin D.

(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