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Vitamin D deficiency tied to heart attacks in men Low blood levels of vitamin D appear to increase the risk of heart attacks, according to the results of a study involving middle-aged and older men. To increase these levels, the authors believe that dietary guidelines should be changed to encourage greater intake of the vitamin. Ecological studies have shown that death from heart disease is increased at higher latitudes, during the winter, and at lower altitudes, all of which are associated with low vitamin D levels, explain Dr. Edward Giovannucci, at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and his associates. Using data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, Giovannucci's group compared blood levels of vitamin D in 454 men who suffered a heart attack over 10 years' of follow-up and 900 similar men who did not. The new findings appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine. After accounting for demographics, family history, lifestyle risk factors, and the presence of various illnesses, men with low vitamin D levels were twice as likely to experience a heart attack than those with high levels. "These results further support an important role for vitamin D in heart attack risk," Giovannucci and his associates maintain. Their findings bolster recommendations that the current guidelines that recommend 200 to 600 IUs per day of vitamin D needs to be increased to achieve blood levels of the vitamin that are high enough to provide protective health benefits. SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, June 9, 2008 Dr. Cinque's comments: The chemical identity of Vitamin D has been known since 1936, and its biological effect in relation to calcium and bones has been known for much longer than that. Yet, here it is 2008, and millions of people are having their lives cut short from a deficiency of Vitamin D. The tragedy is that this vitamin (though it is not really a vitamin, but rather a steroid hormone) is plentiful, cheap, widely available, and extraordinarily safe. You would have to take a large overdose- and for many months, or even years- before you could get into trouble with it. Why isn't there a campaign to inform people about the importance of Vitamin D, akin to the campaigns to promote vaccinations, statin drugs, blood pressure medicine, etc.? Oh right, there's no money in it. After all, how much can they charge for Vitamin D? This is as important as anything else I can think of in the entire field of public health. It's bigger than tainted tomatoes. E-mail to a friend Previous Article Next Article |
