Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. In a small human study, those getting vitamin D improved blood pressure by 8.4% and 30.6% improvement in blood fraction injection.
Heart failure has been called “one of the major medical problems in the Western world”. It is characterized by a decreased ability of the heart to pump blood out to the body, called “ejection fraction”. One to two percent of the adult population in developed countries has heart failure, and in about 10% of those over 70 years of age (1) and in the obese (2).
A suggested treatment option for those with heart failure is vitamin D supplementation, as vitamin D levels are substantially decreased in patients with heart failure (3, 4). Low vitamin D levels (less than 30 nanograms/milliliter) are common among the elderly and those with increasing body mass index. Furthermore, higher vitamin D levels produced more favorable outcomes in heart failure patients (5).
Now a new study (6) suggests that vitamin D may indeed be a very effective treatment option for those with heart failure. The study involved 23 patients with an average age of 74, vitamin D levels less than 30 nanograms/mL, and having heart failure in the previous 5 years with an ejection fraction less than 55%. They received 4,000 International Units of vitamin D (13 subjects) or placebo (10 subjects) daily for 25 weeks. Blood samples were taken and ejection fraction was measured before and after the study.
After 25 weeks, vitamin D levels in the vitamin D group increased by 95.6% (16.2 to 31.7 ng/mL) compared to an 8.75% decrease in the placebo group (16.0 to 14.6 ng/mL, p < 0.001). In the vitamin D group, ejection fraction increased by 20.7% (39.08% to 47.2%) compared to a 9.9% decrease in the placebo group (43.6% to 39.3%, p = 0.018). What’s more, those in the vitamin D group showed a 5.4% decrease in systolic blood pressure (129.6 to 122.7 mmHg) compared to a 3% decrease in the placebo group (138.6 to 134.5 mmHg, p = 0.043), meaning that the heart contractions in the vitamin D group became more efficient, ejecting more blood but working less overall to do so.
For the researchers, “Six months of vitamin D supplementation significantly improves ejection fraction in elderly patients with heart failure and vitamin D deficiency” and that “If confirmed with larger trials, this finding could represent a safe and cost-effective additional therapy for heart failure in elderly patients with vitamin D deficiency.”
Source: Dalbeni, A., et al. “Effects of six months of vitamin D supplementation in patients with heart failure: a randomized double-blind controlled trial.” Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases 24.8 (2014): 861-868.
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Posted May 14, 2015.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.
References:
- Mosterd A, Hoes AW. Clinical epidemiology of heart failure. Heart 2007;93:1137e46.
- Peeters A, Barendregt JJ, Willekens F, Mackenbach JP, Al Mamun A, Bonneux L. Obesity in adulthood and its consequences for the expectancy: a life-table analysis. Ann Intern Med 2003;138: 24e32.
- Lee JH, O’Keefe JH, Bell D, Hensrud DD, Holick MF. Vitamin D deficiency an important, common, and easily treatable cardiovascular risk factor? J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;52:1949e56.
- Zittermann A, Iodice S, Pilz S, Grant WB, Bagnardi V, Gandini S. Vitamin D deficiency and mortality risk in the general population: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Am J Clin Nutr 2012; 95:91e100.
- Melamed ML, Michos ED, Post W, Astor B. 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and the risk of mortality in the general population. Arch Intern Med 2008;168:1629e37
- Dalbeni A. Effects of six months of vitamin D supplementation in patients with heart failure: A randomized double-blind controlled trial. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2014 Mar 5. pii: S0939-4753(14)00086-6. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2014.02.015. [Epub ahead of print]
