Taking Vitamin D May Lower Heart Attack Risk

Simply taking vitamin D may be 40 times more effective at preventing heart attack deaths than cholesterol lowering medications—without the cost or toxicity!

In a study of 3,258 subjects (average age 62 years) suspected of having heart disease, those with low vitamin D levels had over twice the risk of dying from heart attack—or dying period—over a 7-8 year period that they followed. The study compared the 50% of subjects with the lowest levels of vitamin D to the 25% with the highest vitamin D levels.

In addition, low levels of vitamin D were associated with higher levels of inflammation chemicals in the blood, and lower levels of the antioxidant glutathione. These are problems for both those with heart attacks and people with CFS/fibromyalgia.

Unfortunately, the RDA (a.k.a. "Ridiculous Dietary Allowance") for vitamin D is about 400 units daily. Because of the, in my opinion, terrible advice to avoid sunshine, which makes 90% of our vitamin D, vitamin D deficiency is now rampant. This deficiency is estimated to cause over 85,000 unnecessary American cancer deaths yearly, in addition to many other problems (see Vitamin D Could Save Your Life!). The proper advice? Avoid sunburn—not sunshine!

I recommend 1,000-2,000 units of vitamin D a day, with higher levels in cancer patients (doses of 10,000+ units a day are safe, unless you have high blood calcium from cancer in the bones, in which case check with your physician). A good multivitamin powder will be high in vitamin D. Vitamin D is also easy to find in health food stores. Meanwhile, get some sun! Lying on the beach for 15-30 minutes produces about 15,000-30,000 units of vitamin D.

References

"Independent association of low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin dand 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin d levels with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality," Dobnig H, Pilz S, et al, Arch Intern Med, 2008; 168(12): 1340-9.