Vitamin D deficiency and its correlations with increased cardiovascular incidences

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is a worldwide epidemic in terms of mortality. It is especially serious in Western countries with heart disease, surpassing even cancer in mortality. Although our understanding of how to prevent and treat the traditional cardiovascular risk factors is largely known, cardiovascular disease still remains the leading cause of death in the United States. There is a need for further investigations into the nontraditional triggers for cardiovascular incidences. Vitamin D has been tagged as very important for such mechanisms as bone mineralization for a very long time, but more recently emerged the idea that it may in fact be related to cardiovascular incidences. The associated studies gathered are reviews and randomized, controlled trials. They were obtained by using electronic searches, such as Medline and the Cochrane Library. Searches were limited in that certain keywords took precedence, and articles mainly focusing on niacin therapy as opposed to fibrates and statins were chosen. The studies selected were assessed for quality of data and relevance to this review through the study's methodology, results, and data. With the scientific evidence provided by the studies, they were further rated and evaluated. It was proven through a range of studies that there is a striking correlation between low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and different cardiovascular incidences. It was noted in many studies that only a fraction of the patients had serum levels of vitamin D in the desired range, calling for more research to help in the fight against cardiovascular disease. There is a need for further research studies to come to a clear conclusion addressing serum vitamin D levels with overall and cardiovascular mortality. Although it is easy to screen for vitamin D deficiency and to add supplements to one's diet, there is a need for more research before the general public may begin to take note of these associations.