Review Finds Vitamin D Beneficial for Heart Health

by | Jul 1, 2008 | 2008, Cardiovascular Health, Vitamin D - Heart

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Study promotes increased vitamin D intake as a way to help increase heart health.

Atherosclerosis is the process in which deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and other substances build up in the inner lining of an artery and form plaque (1). The American Heart Association defines it a as “a slow, complex disease that typically starts in childhood and often progresses when people grow older”.

Plaque caused by atherosclerosis can grow large enough to significantly reduce the blood’s flow through an artery, and cause blood clots that lead to both heart attacks and strokes. Heart attacks cause 1 in every 5 deaths and strokes cause 1 in every 16 deaths in the U.S. each year, and cost our healthcare system $151.6 billion and $62.7 billion, respectively (2).

Now a new study (3) has started to promote increased vitamin D intake as a way to help increase heart health.

Research has suggested that the optimal blood levels of vitamin D should be at least 30 nanoggrams per milliliter (4). Unfortunately, approximately 41% of men and 53% of women in the US have vitamin D blood levels below 30 ng/ml (5). Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with obesity (6, 7), blood sugar problems (8) and well-established cardiovascular disease risk factors like metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure (which are all well-established CVD risk factors (9). Finally, the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-III) (10), found the prevalence of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity were “all significantly higher” in those with the lowest compared to the highest blood levels of vitamin D.

In the study, researchers conducted literature searches on vitamin D and the risk factors for atherosclerosis, including inflammation, high blood pressure. Regarding inflammation, they found that vitamin D supplementation lowered C-reactive protein levels (11, 12) and may help maintain healthy levels of inflammatory proteins called cytokines (13). For high blood pressure, research found that men with vitamin D blood levels less than 15 ng/ml were 6 times as likely to have high blood pressure compared to those with vitamin D blood levels above 30 ng/ml. For women, this risk was nearly 3 times higher in the 15 ng/ml group than the 30 ng/ml group (14).

These results led the researchers to recommend vitamin D screening because “it is easy yet not widely not accepted in clinical practice.” They also recommended further research to confirm vitamin D’s role in heart health and that “Randomized clinical trials using at least 800 IU per day to achieve serum levels above 30 ng/ml are needed to determine whether vitamin D supplementation therapy could have any potential benefit in reducing future CVD events and mortality risk.”

Source: Michos, Erin D., and Michal L. Melamed. “Vitamin D and cardiovascular disease risk.” Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care 11, no. 1 (2008): 7-12.

© 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

References:

  1. “Atheroslcerosis” posted on the American Heart Association website.
  2. American Heart Association Update. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2007 Update. Circulation. 2007;115:e69-e171
  3. Erin M. Vitamin D and cardiovascular disease risk. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Met Care 2007; 11(1): 7-12
  4. Dawson-Hughes B, Heaney RP, Holick MF, et al. Estimates of optimal vitamin D status. Osteoporos Int 2005; 16:713–716
  5. Zadshir A, Tareen N, Pan D, et al. The prevalence of hypovitaminosis D among US adults: data from NHANES III. Ethn Dis 2005; 15(4 Suppl 5):97–101
  6. Wortsman J, Matsuoka LY, Chen TC, et al. Decreased bioavailability of vitamin in obesity. Am J Clin Nutri 2000; 72:690–693
  7. Arunabh S, Pollack S, Yeh J, et al. Body fat content and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in healthy women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2003; 88:157–161
  8. Hypponen E, Power C. Vitamin D status and glucose homeostasis in the 1958 British birth cohort: the role of obesity. Diabetes Care 2006; 29:2244–2246
  9. Hintzpeter B, Mensink GB, Thierelder W, et al. Vitamin D status and health correlates among German Adults. Eur J Clin Nutr 2007; Epub ahead of print
  10. Martins D, Wolf M, Pan D, et al. Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and the serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the United States: data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Arch Intern Med 2007; 167:1159–1165.
  11. Timms PM, Mannan N, Hitman GA, et al. Circulating MMP9, vitamin D, and variation in the TIMP-1 response with VDR genotype: mechanisms for inflammatory damage in chronic disorders? QJM 2002; 95:787–796
  12. Van den Berghe G, Van Roosbroeck D, Vanhove P, et al. Bone turnover in prolonged critical illness: effect of vitamin D. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2003; 88:4623–4632
  13. Schleithoff SS, Zittermann A, Tenderich G, et al. Vitamin D supplementation improves cytokine profiles in patients with congestive heart failure: a double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutri 2006; 83:754–759.
  14. Forman JP, Giovannucci E, Holmes MD, et al. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and the risk of incident hypertension. Hypertension 2007; 49:1063–1069.