High dose Vitamin D improves cardiovascular health markers

Adapted from UK Medical News 17 July 2018

Several different health measures, all which improve your cardiovascular outcomes, have been found to result from high dose vitamin D supplementation. You are likely to need to take at least 4,000 iu a day though, depending on how much extra sunshine you are exposed to regularly.

A meta-analysis of 81 randomised controlled trials looked at almost one thousand patients randomised to taking supplements or to a control group who did not. The active and control groups were both roughly 5,000 each.  The durations of the trials varied but averaged out at ten months. The doses ranged from 400 iu a day to 12,000 iu a day. The average taken was 3,000 iu a day.

The outcomes were related to the blood level of vitamin D achieved. Levels had to be over 86 nmol/L to get benefits. You need to take over 4,000 iu a day to get vitamin D concentrations of 100 nmol/L or more.  My comment:This does mean that the minimum levels advised by the Scottish Chief Medical Officer last year are way too low to see the benefits discussed here.

So what extra benefits do you see?

lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

lower high sensitivity C reactive protein.

lower serum parathyroid hormone.

lower triglycerides.

lower total cholesterol.

lower low density lipoprotein.

high density lipoprotein increased.

All benefits were numerically small but did reach statistical significance. Cardiovascular outcomes were not measured directly, only blood markers and blood pressure.

Mirhosseini N et al. Vitamin D Supplementation. Serum 25(OH)D Concentrations and cardiovascular disease risk factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2018 July 12.