Heart failure, vitamin D supplements help the heart be stronger and more efficient

Heart failure: vitamin D strengthens the heart

Vitamin D supplements can improve heart function in patients with chronic heart failure, a condition in which the heart becomes too weak to pump blood properly. Vitamin D, could be an inexpensive and safe alternative for those suffering from this syndrome.

This is the result of a study conducted by researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, (UK) presented at the meeting of the American College of Cardiology, and published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology.

Effects of vitamin D on the heart 

Most vitamin D is produced by the skin from sunlight, and it is also found in some foods such as oily fish, eggs, cheese, and offal. Vitamin D deficiency is widespread throughout the world, particularly in countries where exposure to sunlight is weak, and is also common among the elderly population. 

As we age, in fact, we tend to spend less time outdoors and also the skin's ability to produce the vitamin becomes less efficient. Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones and teeth, but it also possesses critical importance for the proper functioning of the immune, respiratory and cardiac systems. 

According to some research, patients with heart failure are often deficient in vitamin D, and this hypovitaminosis is associated with a worse prognosis, compared with those with higher levels. Heart failure, or heart failure, is the inability of the heart to supply an adequate amount of blood relative to the body's normal needs, due to weakening of the heart muscle. 

The consequence of this phenomenon is a reduction in the volume of blood that the heart pumps from the left ventricle with each beat. Clinical trials that have examined the effect of vitamin D supplementation in patients with chronic heart failure have been inconclusive to date. 

Vitamin D supplements increase ventricular ejection 

Researchers in Leeds reported that through their study of 163 patients with heart failure,divitamin Dsupplements could improve their hearts' ability to pump blood throughout the body. Specifically, the ejection fraction, the amount of blood pumped out of the heart chambers with each beat, had increased from 26 percent to 34 percent in the patients observed. The study also showed that the hearts of these subjects had become smaller, thus more powerful and efficient. It is not clear exactly how vitamin D can improve heart function but it is thought, however, that every cell in the body responds to the vitamin. According to Dr. Witte, who directed the study, these results are amazing especially when compared to other more expensive treatments used-no research has shown anything like this in the past 15 years. 

Some details of the study 

Klaus K. Witte and colleagues observed 223 patients, with an average age of 70 years, with chronic left ventricular heart failure, systolic dysfunction and low vitamin D levels even in summer. Each participant followed supplementation with 100 micrograms of vitamin D3 daily or a sugar pill as a placebo. 

In total, only 163 patients completed the one-year treatment. After 12 months, researchers measured the impact on heart failure of vitamin D. The key measure was ejection fraction. 

This in a healthy adult is 60 to 70 percent, but only a quarter of the blood was being successfully pumped in patients with heart failure. Left ventricular ejection measurement was found to be increased by 6.07 percent in patients who had received the vitamin D supplement compared with those who had received placebo. In addition, subjects who had taken the supplement showed improvement in echocardiographic measures such as heart size and volume, compared with those who had taken a placebo. 

Vitamin D: a cheap and safe alternative 

According to the authors of the research, these data demonstrate improvements in heart function and symptoms following consumption of vitamin D supplements, but it is now necessary to confirm the results with a much larger study and over a longer period of time to determine whether the changes in heart function can also translate into a longer life for patients with heart failure. The use of vitamin D supplements could represent a huge advance in the treatment of heart failure because it has no side effects and is inexpensive.  

Source: Witte KK, et al, "Effects of Vitamin D on Cardiac Function in Patients With Chronic HF: The VINDICATE Study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016 Jun 7;67(22):2593-603. Epub 2016 Apr 4.