Vitamin D Could Lengthen Life

(June 24, 2008) - More and more, scientists are finding that low levels of vitamin D (Read about "Vitamins & Minerals") contribute to all sorts of problems. The latest study says that Individuals with lower blood levels of vitamin D appear to have an increased risk of death overall and from cardiovascular causes. (Read about "The Heart & Cardiovascular System")

The study appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A recent consensus panel estimated that about 50 percent to 60 percent of older individuals in North America and the rest of the world do not have satisfactory vitamin D status, and the situation is similar for younger individuals, according to background information in the article. Blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a measure of blood vitamin D levels, lower than 20 to 30 nanograms per milliliter have been associated with falls, fractures, cancer, immune dysfunction, cardiovascular disease and hypertension. (Read about "Accidental Falls" "Bone Fractures" "Cancer: What It Is" "The Immune System" "Coronary Heart Disease" "Hypertension: High Blood Pressure")

Researchers studied vitamin D levels in 3,258 patients who were scheduled for coronary angiography testing. (Read about "CT Scan - Computerized Tomography") During about 7.7 years of follow-up, 22.6 percent of participants died, about 62 percent of those people died of cardiovascular causes. Death rates from any cause and from cardiovascular causes were higher among individuals in the lower one-half of vitamin D levels.

"Apart from the proved effects that vitamin D has on bone metabolism and neuromuscular function, appropriate serum levels (that may also be higher than in the present investigation) are associated with a decrease in mortality," they conclude.