Moderate vitamin D deficiency nearly doubles the risk of
myocardial infarction, stroke and heart failure over a mean of 5.4
years in patients with high blood pressure, according to media
reports Tuesday quoting Harvard researchers.
Researchers led by Dr. Thomas Wang of Harvard Medical School in
Boston followed 1,739 people, average age 59, for 5 years. The
people in this study were offspring of original participants in the
long-running Framingham Heart Study centered in Massachusetts, and
had no prior history of cardiovascular disease.
Wang and colleagues wanted to know whether vitamin D levels in
the Framingham offspring from the 1996-2001 exams were correlated
with the rate of first cardiovascular events occurring later.
Research indicated that those with low vitamin D levels had
about a 60 percent higher risk of a cardiovascular event like heart
attack, heart failure or stroke compared to those with higher
levels, even with well-known cardiovascular risk factors such as
diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure taken into
account.
The risk for heart attack, heart failure or stroke was double in
people with both high blood pressure, also known as hypertension,
and vitamin D deficiency, the researchers said.
The researchers also adjusted for such factors as age, gender,
smoking and diabetes status, weight, and cholesterol levels in
their statistical analyses.
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2008)