Vitamin D and hearts
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat. A study indicates people who don’t get enough vitamin D may have a higher risk of heart disease. Thomas Wang of Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital bases that on data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study. His research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, is in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Wang says people with moderate to severe vitamin D deficiency had a 60 percent greater chance of conditions such as a heart attack. He says his study doesn’t prove the deficiency raised the risk. But vitamin D does help to build stronger bones. So: ``What I would suggest is that people try to improve their intake of vitamin D and vitamin D-containing foods if in fact they are deficient in that area.’’ (7 seconds) You can get vitamin D from sunshine and foods such as fortified milk. Learn more at hhs.gov. HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss. Last revised: January, 24 2008 |