Vitamin D can boost your heart health, finds study

Australia: A recent study in the European Heart Journal has found that vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The authors suggest that the CVD burden can be reduced by population-wide correction of low vitamin D status. In simpler words, people with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to suffer from heart disease and higher blood pressure, than those with normal levels of vitamin D. 

For people with the lowest concentrations, the risk of heart disease was more than double that seen for those with sufficient concentrations.

The researchers from the UniSA's Australian Centre for Precision Health at SAHMRI have identified genetic evidence for the role of vitamin D deficiency in causing cardiovascular disease. 

Previous studies have shown low vitamin D to be associated with a higher CVD risk. Most existing linear Mendelian randomization (MR) studies reported a null effect of vitamin D on CVD risk, however, a non-linear effect cannot be excluded. Elina Hyppönen, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia, and colleagues aimed to investigate the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration with CVD risk by applying the non-linear MR design.

The non-linear MR analysis was conducted in the UK Biobank with 44 519 CVD cases and 251 269 controls. Secondary outcomes included blood pressure (BP) and cardiac-imaging-derived phenotypes. Serum 25(OH)D concentration was instrumented using 35 confirmed genome-wide significant variants. 

The researchers concluded, "vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of CVD. Burden of CVD could be reduced by population-wide correction of low vitamin D status."

Reference:

Ang Zhou, Joseph B Selvanayagam, Elina Hyppönen, Non-linear Mendelian randomization analyses support a role for vitamin D deficiency in cardiovascular disease risk, European Heart Journal, 2021;, ehab809, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab809