Low blood levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attack and stroke, said Padma Shri & Dr. B.C. Roy National Awardee, Dr. KK Aggarwal, President, Heart Care Foundation of India.
The five years of research with participants in the Framingham Heart Study included 1,739 people, average age 59, living in that Massachusetts city found that those with the lowest levels of vitamin D had a 62 percent greater risk of a cardiovascular event than those with the next highest levels.
As per a report published in the issue of Circulation of sunlight on the skin each week allows the skin to produce blood levels of about 30 nanograms of vitamin D per liter of blood, more than enough to prevent a deficiency such as rickets.
Food sources of vitamin D include milk (which is fortified) and oily fishes such as salmon.
Recommendations from the U.S. Institute of Medicine call for a daily intake of vitamin D ranging from 200 International Units (IU) for young people, to 400 IU for the middle-aged, to 600 IU for older people.
But getting that amount from food and sunlight may not be easy. A glass of fortified milk contains only about 100 IU of vitamin D. The suggested recommendation is 1,000 – 2,000 IU.
The cardiovascular risk associated with low vitamin D levels was especially greater for people who also had high blood pressure. Their incidence of cardiovascular events was double that of people with higher blood levels of vitamin D.
