True to the adage that says the sun is the giver of life, studies have shown that Vitamin D, from which the sun is a primary source, has been proven to benefit damaged hearts.
This stunning development was presented by the Leeds Teaching Hospitals team during a meeting of the American College of Cardiology recently, where the ‘stunning’ discovery was based on clinical trials from 163 persons with heart failure problems where vitamin D was found in their bloodstream and improved the blood-pumping activity of the heart.
The body benefits from vitamin D from the sun as the skin is exposed to sunlight. Other sources of vitamin D for oral supplements are also sourced from plant-based dietary products.
The British Heart Foundation, on the other hand, acknowledged the findings of the study but is calling for longer trials to assess the results using oral supplements.
Although Vitamin D is considered vital to the body as it provides the essential nutrient for the bones and teeth to stay healthy, as well as other health benefits, however, many people are still considered deficient of this vitamin.
Dr. Klaus Witte, a consultant cardiologist involved in the research, said that the average age of people in the study were between 65 to 70 years old and as expected, had low levels of Vitamin D in their bodies even during summer.
Dr. Witte said they were baffled by the fact that these people had less amounts of Vitamin D when the skin’s ability to absorb and convert sunlight into the vitamin is more effective at this age.
The patients were provided a daily dose of 100 micrograms of Vitamin D in a tablet or sugar pill placebo for a year.
The researchers then measured the effects on heart failure –where the condition is characterized by the heart becoming too weak to pump blood throughout the body.
This is determined by what is called the ejection fraction or the amount of blood being pumped out of the heart chambers with each heart beat.
An adult considered physically healthy usually generates around 60 to 70 percent but those with heart failure problems usually have at most 25% of the volume pumped out.
Surprisingly, those taking the vitamin supplement tablets were found to have seen improvement in their heart –pumping activity when the ejection fraction jumped to 34%.
People should be more conscious about getting their required dose of Vitamin D as it is one of the cheapest and highly available vitamin that can be acquired to stay healthy, Dr. Witte added.
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