The essential elements to improve the health of your heart are diet, exercise, smoking and stress.
Low Vitamin D Intake Boosts Heart Attack Risk
Vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases. Researchers at Harvard Medical School followed 1,739 people for five years, assessing their vitamin D levels. The average age of participants was 59. All participants had no prior history of cardiovascular disease.
Participants with low levels of vitamin D had a 60 percent higher chance of experiencing a cardiovascular event, including heart attack, heart failure or stroke, during the study period than participants with high blood levels. The correlation remained even after adjustment for other risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
Those who had vitamin D deficiency and high blood pressure had twice the risk of cardiovascular events as those who had only vitamin D deficiency.
"There is a growing body of experimental literature suggesting that vitamin D may have some actions on the heart and major blood levels," said lead researcher Thomas Wang.
More recent research has also suggested that high vitamin D intake may protect against certain cancers and the degenerative disease multiple sclerosis.
The human body naturally produces vitamin D upon exposure to sunlight. Health professionals recommend that light-skinned people get 10 to 15 minutes of sunshine exposure at least three times per week, and that dark skinned people get up to twice that amount.