Many people take Vitamin D for their bones, but recent research shows it might be just as important for your heart.
New studies from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City are now questioning whether the usual Vitamin D doses recommended by health experts are actually high enough to help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Doctors already know that having low levels of Vitamin D in your blood is linked to a higher risk of serious heart problems. But two new studies reveal that the typical dose—about 600 to 800 units per day—may not be enough for many people. In fact, some patients needed more than 10,000 units daily just to get to the healthy level of Vitamin D in their blood.
Dr. Heidi May, one of the lead researchers, said that older studies may not have shown good results because they didn’t give people enough Vitamin D. That means past research might have missed the full benefits simply because the dose was too low.
Another researcher, Dr. Viet Le, said that Vitamin D needs are different for everyone. That’s why a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Some people may need more than others to reach the best level for their health.
To find out more, the researchers ran a study called the Target-D trial. They included patients who had recently had a heart attack or stroke. The goal was to raise their Vitamin D levels to over 40 nanograms per milliliter—a number that the researchers believe is best for heart health.
The results were surprising. Almost 90% of the patients in the treatment group needed Vitamin D supplements, and many of them needed much higher doses than doctors normally give. Even with those big doses, it still took three to six months for many people to reach the target level.
So what does this mean for the rest of us?
It may be time to take a closer look at how we use Vitamin D. These new studies suggest that if we want to see real benefits—especially for our hearts—we may need to rethink how much we take and how we decide the right dose for each person.
The research also highlights the importance of personalized medicine. Instead of using the same plan for everyone, doctors might need to test patients’ Vitamin D levels and adjust their supplements based on their individual needs.
In short, this new research shows that getting the right amount of Vitamin D may be more complicated than we thought. But by paying closer attention and giving people the right dose, we might be able to lower the risk of heart disease and help more people stay healthy.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies about a big cause of heart failure, and common blood test could advance heart failure treatment.
For more health information, please see recent studies about a new way to repair human heart, and results showing drinking coffee may help reduce heart failure risk.
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