Vitamin D 'Heals Damaged Hearts'

Vitamin D Supplement helps Diseased Heart

A study suggests that Vitamin D supplement could help people suffering from diseased heart. A test on 163 patients with heart failure found supplements of the vitamin, made in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight tends to improve the ability of their hearts to pump blood around the body.

A team from Leeds Teaching Hospitals who had presented a meeting of the American College of Cardiology had described the results as `stunning’. The British Heart Foundation had called for longer trials to assess the pills. Vitamin D is considered to be vital for healthy bones and teeth and tends to have major health benefits for the body though several people may suffer from deficiency.

Average age of people in the study had been 70 and like several people of that age, they seemed to have low level of vitamin D even in summer. Dr Klaus Witte, consultant cardiologist, had said that `they spend less time outside and the skin’s ability to manufacture vitamin D also gets less effective, with age and we don’t really understand why that is’. Each day for a year, patients were given either a 100 microgram vitamin D tablet or a sugar pill placebo.

Main Extent – Ejection Fraction

The researchers measured the impact on heart failure, a condition wherein the heart tends to get too weak to pump the blood accurately.The main extent was the ejection fraction which is the amount of blood pumped out of the chambers of the heart with each beat. In the case of healthy adult, the figure seems to be between 60% and 70% though only a quarter of the blood in the heart had been successfully pumped out in heart failure patients.

However, in the case of those taking the vitamin pills, the ejection fraction had increased from 26% to 34%. Dr Witte had informed BBC News website that it was quite a big deal which is as big as one would expect from other more expensive treatments that are used and it’s a stunning effect. He added that it is as cheap as chip with no side effects and a stunning improvement on people already on optimal medical therapy; it is the first time anyone has shown something like this in the last 15 years.

Most of Vitamin D – Sunlight

The study also showed that the hearts of the patient became smaller, a suggestion that they are becoming more powerful and efficient. People over 65, in the UK were advised to take 10 microgram supplement of the vitamin. But Dr Witte dos not think that high dose vitamin D should be routine prescribed just yet. He informed BBC that they are a little bit off that yet not because they do not believe it but the data has shown improvement in heart function, they may show improvements in symptoms and a large study is needed.

It was also not clear how precisely vitamin D tends to improve heart function though it is thought that every cell in the body tends to respond to the vitamin. Most of the vitamin D comes from sunlight but it is also found in eggs, oily fish and is added to some of the foods like breakfast cereals.