The vitamin deficiency that contributes to heart disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. It’s also the leading cause of death in my family.

I’ve watched relative after relative fall victim to it. It’s a frightening fact and one that’s behind why I do what I do and spend so much time researching natural ways to stay healthy and fight off the diseases that come with aging.

And, while the statistics on heart disease are scary, did you know that African Americans have even higher rates of heart disease than Caucasians and that the disease tends to occur earlier in life?

That’s why researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University decided to study that population to see if a vitamin deficiency could contribute to the development of the disease and if reversing the deficiency could help overcome the danger.

Decreased arterial stiffness in a matter of months by 10%

The study followed 70 African Americans all with some degree of arterial stiffness over 16 weeks, measuring their pulse wave velocity for changes in the level of that stiffness.

Arterial stiffness is significant because the less flexible your arteries are (and the higher your pulse wave velocity), the higher your risk of heart disease and death.

In fact, Dr. Yanbin Dong, geneticist and cardiologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University  says, “We think maybe in the future, when you go to your physician, he or she might check your arterial stiffness as another indicator of how healthy you are.”

All participants were all given varying amounts of vitamin D or placebo.

Here’s what they found:

• For those taking a placebo, arterial stiffness increased by 2.3 percent over the four months.
• At 600 IUs, the recommended RDA of vitamin D, arterial stiffness actually increased by 0.1 percent.
• 2,000 IUs of vitamin D decreased arterial stiffness by 2 percent in the same timeframe.
• 4,000 IUs of vitamin D REDUCED arterial stiffness at 10.4 percent in just four months.

Dr. Anas Raed, a research resident in the MCG Department of Medicine and the study’s first author says that 4,000 IUs of the sunshine vitamin, “Significantly and rapidly reduced stiffness.”

The 4,000 IU dose also restored healthy blood levels of the vitamin quicker (by eight weeks) and was better at suppressing parathyroid hormone, which works against vitamin D’s efforts to improve your bone health by absorbing calcium.

Putting vitamin D to work in your blood vessels

Scientists say that it’s not completely understood just why exactly vitamin D is so good for your arteries but they think it works on a number of levels.

First, studies in mice have shown that when they are missing a vitamin D receptor, they have higher activation of a system that causes their blood vessels to constrict, contributing to arterial stiffness.

Second, the vitamin can suppress vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, activation of garbage-eating macrophages and calcification formation, all of which can thicken your blood vessel walls, making them less flexible.

And finally, vitamin D also lowers inflammation levels in your body, which has been linked to obesity and heart disease.

Because of all this, the researchers recommend getting more vitamin D each day to reduce blood vessel stiffness and your chances of cardiovascular disease and death.

You can get more D in three ways:

• Get 15 minutes daily in the “young” sun (between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.) but before your skin starts to get pink
• Eat foods sources, including milk, cheese, yogurt, fatty fish, kale and collards
• Take a quality vitamin D3 supplement. The Vitamin D Council recommends that adults take 5000 IU of vitamin D3 daily and that amount is safe and often prescribed by physicians to get low levels up and maintain them.

Considering the significant role that arterial stiffness plays in heart disease, it’s also important to note that two other supplements have been shown to help relax blood vessels: vitamin K2 and pterostilbene.

According to research in The Journal of Nutrition, inadequate amounts of vitamin K2 may lead to enhanced calcification in arteries.

And, pterostilbene helps block the creation of Angiotensin II – an enzyme that stiffens the walls of blood vessels and triggers a hormone that increases the amounts of sodium and water retained in the body.

Food sources of vitamin K2 include natto (fermented soybeans), aged and curd cheeses, egg yolk, butter, organ meats and dark chicken. You can find pterostilbene in blueberries, almonds, red wine and cocoa.

Sources:

High doses of vitamin D rapidly reduce arterial stiffness in overweight/obese, vitamin-deficient African-Americans — Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University

What is vitamin D toxicity — The Mayo Clinic