Lack of Vitamin D Could Raise Odds for Death
Reported June 24, 2008
New research is now linking low levels of vitamin D with death from heart disease, bolstering mounting evidence about the “sunshine” vitamin’s role in promoting good health. This doesn’t mean you should run out and spend hours in the sun or start popping vitamin D pills, but it does bear looking at your diet and habits to make sure that your body is getting adequate amounts and the benefits of this nutrient.
The study found that patients with the lowest levels of vitamin D in their blood were about two times more likely to die from any cause during the next eight years than those patients with high vitamin D levels. Led by a team of Austrian researchers, 3258 participants of both sexes were studied in southern Germany. Most of the participants were around the age of 62 and already had heart disease and doing weekly blood tests to check their vitamin D levels. After eight years of follow-up, 737 patients had died, including 463 patients from heart-related problems.
The study itself did not determine whether the lack of vitamin D caused the deaths, or whether increasing your vitamin D intake will make any difference. According to one of the vitamin tests they used, in the number of death recorded, 307 were patients with the lowest levels versus 103 deaths in those with the highest levels of the vitamin. Counting factors such as physical activity, age, and others, the researchers calculated that the deaths from all causes were about twice as common in patients in the group with the lowest-levels of vitamin D.
A spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University, Alice Lichtenstein, agreed that low levels of vitamin D in our blood could also reflect lack of physical activity, age, or other lifestyle factors that can also affect health, but also felt that keeping these other factors in mind, this study is still an important addition to an emerging area of research. “This is something that should not be ignored.”
The results don’t prove that low levels of vitamin D are harmful “but the evidence is just becoming overwhelming at this point,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Harald Dobnig of the Medical University of Graz. He also stated that scientists used to think that the only role of vitamin D was to strengthen bones or prevent rickets. “Now we are beginning to realize that there is much more into it.”
Earlier this month Health News published an article on the widespread vitamin D deficiency in the U.S., and recent research at Harvard has linked low vitamin D levels with heart attacks. Previous research also linked low vitamin D levels with diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity which can all lead up to heart disease.
Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a researcher in the Harvard study of 18,225 men, said that the new research “provides the strongest evidence to date for a link between vitamin D deficiency and cardiovascular mortality.”
Low levels of vitamin D have also been linked with several cancers in kids and some researchers believe that the vitamin could even be used to help malignancies. It has been estimated that approximately 50 percent of older adults worldwide have low levels of vitamin D. The problem has also been thought to affect a substantial number or younger people as well. The possible reasons for this include air pollution, decreased outdoor activities, and as people age, a decline in the skins ability to produce vitamin D from the suns ultraviolet rays.
Some physicians believe that the overuse of sunscreen lotions has contributed, and say that just 10 to 15 minutes in the sun on a daily basis without sunscreen is safe and enough to ensure an adequate amount of vitamin D, although there is no consensus on that.
The Institute of Medicine’s current recommendations for vitamin D per day are 200 units for children and adults up to age 50. For older adults they recommend 400 to 600 units per day. Some physicians believe that these amounts are way to low and recommend taking supplements with their normal diet