Find out how much vitamin D you need to get daily to prevent a heart attack.
The study: In a 10-year project, the team analyzed medical records and blood samples from 454 men, ages 40 to 75, all of whom had suffered a nonfatal heart attack or died of heart disease. They were compared to 900 men who had no history of cardiovascular disease.
Men: Do these five things every day and you could significantly slash your risk for heart disease.
The results: The men who had a vitamin D deficiency were 2.5 times more likely to suffer a heart attack--and a fatal one at that--than did those who had a sufficient amount of vitamin D, according to study leader Dr. Edward Giovannucci. "After additional adjustment for family history of myocardial infarction, body-mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity, history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension, ethnicity, region, marine omega-3 intake, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels, this relationship remained significant," the study authors wrote in the June 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Vitamin D deficiency has been related to an increasing number of conditions and to total mortality. These results further support an important role for vitamin D in myocardial infarction risk."
Vitamin D is often called the "sunshine vitamin," since we get it when the skin is exposed to sunlight, but with concerns about skin cancer, we're getting less exposure to the sun. Vitamin D is also found in fortified milk and cold cereals and naturally in salmon and other fatty fish. A vitamin D deficiency in children can lead to rickets. Recent medical studies have shown that vitamin D can protect us from some types of cancer, heart attacks, heart failure and stroke.
