Researchers from the Salt Lake City Medical Center (United States) have just confirmed to cardiologists meeting in congress in Chicago that certain cardiovascular events (infarction, Stroke, heart failure…) could be predicted by simply measuring vitamin D levels.
According to Dr. Heidi May, an epidemiologist at the medical center, people who have both low levels of vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular problems.
To obtain these results, Dr. May and his team analyzed the levels of the various metabolites of vitamin D (the components of the vitamin that are produced during metabolism) in 4,200 people aged 52 to 76 years. Of these, about a quarter had diabetes and about 70% had coronary heart disease. From their analysis, the researchers found that measuring both total levels of vitamin D and bioavailable vitamin D was highly accurate in predicting the risk of cardiac events. In other words, people with low levels of vitamin D (total and bioavailable) are at the highest risk for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, or even heart death.
This study could determine what dosage of vitamin D it is important to prescribe, according to Dr May, depending on the cardiovascular risk factors of the patients.
Read also :
Vitamin D: what do we risk if we are deficient?
Are We Really Lacking Vitamin D?
