Vitamin D Treats Congestive Heart Failure

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Dr. Mercola

March 05 2003

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Vitamin D Treats Congestive Heart Failure

A lack of vitamin D may contribute to congestive heart failure, as researchers found that patients with chronic heart failure have lower levels of the vitamin in the blood.

Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart fails to pump blood around the body efficiently and organs are not able to get enough nutrients and oxygen.

Previous animal research has indicated a link between vitamin D and heart failure, which spurred researchers to conduct the study on humans.

Fifty-four patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) were compared with 34 healthy people, and it was found that CHF patients had vitamin D levels that were up to 50 percent lower than healthy patients. The more severe the vitamin D deficiency, the worse the heart failure symptoms were.

According to researchers, vitamin D may play a role in regulating calcium concentration in cells of the heart muscle. If calcium concentration is not controlled, muscle cells cannot expand and contract properly, which means that blood will not be pumped efficiently around the body.

Humans make vitamin D, but the majority is synthesized from sun exposure. Lack of sun exposure, which is an increasing problem as people spend long hours in offices or in front of television sets, can result in vitamin D deficiency.

Future studies will determine whether CHF patients benefit from increasing levels of vitamin D.

Journal of the American College of Cardiology January 2003;1;41(1):105-12

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Well, you can add congestive heart failure to the slew of important conditions that vitamin D addresses. If you aren’t familiar with all of vitamin D’s benefits, I strongly encourage you to review the first link below.

Vitamin D is one of those stealth nutrients that you shouldn’t have to worry about if you live in a sub-tropical area. However, this is not the case for the majority of the readers of this newsletter. Most, but certainly not everyone, would benefit from taking a vitamin D supplement in the winter months.

One of the finest forms of vitamin D you can get is one that is balanced with fish oil, and this perfect package is available in cod liver oil. I recommend Carlson’s cod liver oil because its quality, purity and freshness are superior to other brands I have tried. You may be able to find it in your local health food store, or you can purchase Carlson’s cod liver oil in our store.

However, please use caution when taking cod liver oil. I regularly screen just about all of my patients for vitamin D levels, and a significant number of new patients already have sufficient vitamin D levels. If they continue taking cod liver oil and get sun exposure they will get vitamin D toxicity.

You will hear virtually no one warning you of vitamin D toxicity, but it is very real and it displays no symptoms until it is too late. There are virtually no known treatments for vitamin D toxicity except avoiding further vitamin D intake and letting your body naturally metabolize it out over many months.

If you have an excess of vitamin D you will actually cause all the problems it treats--you will actually worsen your bone density and cause heart disease if your vitamin D levels are excessive.

For those in the United States, your vitamin D level should not be above 50 at this time of year as we are getting close to summer when many people will have access to regular sunshine. If your level is much over 50 now there is a high likelihood you will develop toxic side effects from excessive vitamin D.

So please do yourself a favor; read the article on vitamin D testing and be sure to have yours measured.

Related Articles:

Breakthrough Updates You Need to Know on Vitamin D

Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency

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