I am delighted to see so many studies coming out on vitamin D and its role in human health. Over and over again they corroborate what I wrote about in my book that we all need higher levels of vitamin D to keep ourselves healthy, especially in this day of the health-care crisis our country is experiencing.

Another new PROSPECTIVE study showing the relationship between low vitamin D levels and higher likelihood of death from cardiovascular disease and all other causes of death has just been published in the prestigious Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

In this study the authors again  used the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) data. They looked at over  3400 participants who were older than 65 and followed them  over a seven-year period.

During the seven years of the study there were over 1400 deaths including over 700 cardiovascular disease related deaths  in the study group.

The findings were that the baseline vitamin D level in these adults was inversely associated with all cause mortality  and there was a stronger association for cardiovascular death.

Specifically in this study the authors compared those are the vitamin D level of 10 to those with a level of 40. Those with the lower level with three times more likely to die from heart disease and 2.5 times more likely to die from any  cause.

Adit Ginde MD MPH, the author of the article was quoted as saying "It’s likely that more than one third of older adults now have vitamin D levels associated with higher risks of death and few have levels associated with optimal survival". He went on to say "given the aging population and the simplicity of increasing a person’s level of vitamin D, a small improvement in death rates could have a substantial impact on public health"

I was happy to see that the authors went on further to conclude that "current dosage recommendations for vitamin D supplementation appear to be inadequate in most older adults to support these higher levels that are associated with optimal general health and reduce mortality."

In my book I review earlier data which has concluded the same thing. Specifically that those with low vitamin D levels were twice as likely to die from heart disease compared with those who had normal levels of vitamin D.

More and more information is continually coming out to support the recommendations I gave in my book to keep your vitamin D blood levels from 40ng/ml to 70ng/ml. When was the last time you tested your levels? You can test with your doctor or with one of my at-home self test kits.

Original Article

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