vitamin d deficiency linked to heart

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Heart Attacks

More than 75 years ago, we learned that lack of vitamin D causes

rickets, bone deformities and failure to grow in children. Twenty

years ago, reports started to appear showing that lack of vitamin D

also impairs your immunity to limit your ability to kill germs. This

was followed by studies showing that it also increase risk for certain

cancers. Now the Framingham Offspring Study from Harvard tells us that

low blood levels of vitamin D increase risk for heart attacks

(Circulation, January 2008).

The authors followed 1700 participants (mean age 59) without prior

cardiovascular disease for five years. Those with low blood levels of

active vitamin D at the onset had one and a half times the chances of

suffering a heart attack. Those with low vitamin D and high blood

pressure had twice the risk. At this time, nobody knows why lack of

vitamin D increases heart attack risk.

Dietary sources of vitamin D include deep-water fish and fortified

cereals, but most North Americans meet their needs for vitamin D from

sunlight and not from their diets. If you do not get out in the sun at

least a few times a week, ask your doctor to check your blood levels

of vitamin D. People with dark skin and those who are overweight are