Lack of vitamin D and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and death

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and death, according to a new observational study published Monday.

This study has been conducted for over a year on a group of 27,686 people aged at least 50-years and without cardiovascular history. The results show that people with low blood levels of vitamin D have a risk of death 77% higher than people with normal levels of this vitamin.

The subjects in this study suffering from the lack of vitamin D were 45% more likely to develop coronary heart disease and 78% more likely to suffer a stroke than those whose level of vitamin D was normal.

Patients with very low levels of vitamin D were also twice as likely to suffer heart failure than those with levels considered normal.

"We found that among people of 50 years and over, even a moderate deficiency of vitamin D is linked to the development of coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and high mortality," explains Dr. Heidi May, one of the authors of the study, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Cardiology of Intermountain Medical Center – Salt Lake City, Utah.

This research must be presented at the annual conference of the American Heart Association meeting this week in Orlando, Florida.

According to this physician, these results are "totally surprising and important because it is easy to treat people with vitamin D, thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease - leading cause of death in the United States."

Recent research has shown that vitamin D plays a role in many biological functions including blood pressure, the level of glucose in the blood and inflammation, all of the important risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The main source of vitamin D is the Sun which makes our skin synthesize necessary amount of the vitamin.

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