According to a new study, having low levels of vitamin D is associated with a doubling of the risk of heart
attacks in men and an even greater risk of dying from the cardiac condition.
The findings, published June 9th in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, may help shed light on why many people with no known risk factors – such as high blood pressure or smoking – inexplicably develop heart attacks. It also suggests it may be possible to reduce the incidence of the often fatal condition by popping an inexpensive pill that is widely available in pharmacies and supplement stores.
“It’s an important finding,” says Edward Giovannucci, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, one of the researchers. “It does indicate that even individuals without the standard risk factors for heart disease may be at somewhat higher risk if they have lower vitamin D levels”. Dr. Giovannucci said vitamin D may be beneficial by reducing the buildup of plaque in arteries, one of the causes of heart attacks.
In the study, researchers compared levels of the nutrient in the blood of 454 male doctors and other health-care professionals in the United States who had heart attacks with those of a group of 900 of their colleagues similar in age, smoking habits and other factors who did not have an attack.
The men were chosen from a continuing research projected conducted at Harvard known as the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which began in 1986 to scrutinize nutritional factors among 51,000 dentists, doctors and other medical practitioners for clues about the causes of cancer and heart disease.
Most of the blood samples were drawn from 1993 to 1995. The participants were followed for 10 years.
Only 23 per cent of the men had sufficient levels of vitamin D. The researchers learned that 77% of the men had vitamin D levels of 15 ng/mL or less in their blood samples — an indication of vitamin D deficiency — had an increased risk for heart attack compared to those whose vitamin D level was considered sufficient (30 ng/mL). The twofold increased risk remained significant even when adjusting for other factors known to contribute to heart disease, such as high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, or a family history of heart disease.
The possible link between vitamin D insufficiency and heart attacks is among a growing number of recent medical observations about the nutrient, which is often dubbed the sunshine vitamin because it can be created in people’s skin when it is exposed to strong ultraviolet light, in addition to being available in a pill form.
The new finding may help explain why heart attack incidence has a peculiar distribution. It has been shown that deaths related to cardiovascular disease are more frequent in higher latitudes and during the winter months – when and where the sun rarely shines – and are less frequent at higher altitudes. Dr. Giovannucci and colleagues note that, “This pattern is consistent with an adverse effect of hypovitaminosis D [vitamin D deficiency], which is more prevalent at higher latitudes, during the winter and at lower altitudes.” Although there are most likely several reasons for these observations, researchers do know that vitamin D impacts the body in ways that affect the risk of heart attack and heart disease.
Although the study doesn’t prove vitamin D caused the reduction in heart attack risk, it is considered by some medical researchers as strong circumstantial evidence of a connection.
For more information on Vitamin D – See this NIH Factsheet
If you’re not getting out in the sun often enough and you want a dietary supplement to help supply vitamin D in your diet check out our AdvoCare CorePlex Multivitamin which includes 600 IU of vitamin D plus 35 other vitamins and minerals.
