Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death

Re:Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death by tokenadult on Sunday November 27, 2011 @09:13AM (#3282433)

The interesting thing about this study is the finding on a classic "hard endpoint," namely all-cause mortality. And what is worthwhile about this news story is that it doesn't just regurgitate a press release, but points out what issues haven't been resolved by the study. Those issues are always important to keep in mind.

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

The first author

http://www2.kumc.edu/internalmedicine/cv/jvacek.html

and his lab

http://www2.kumc.edu/internalmedicine/cv/publications.html

appear to have some relevant experience and previous peer-reviewed publications. A finding of this nature must, of course, be replicated by other researchers.

Here is a link to the abstract of the e-publication ahead of print of the underlying study in the American Journal of Cardiology:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22071212

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Re:Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death by danielharan on Sunday November 27, 2011 @11:16AM (#3282661)

It must be replicated. In the meantime, it's probably a good idea for people in Northern areas to take 1-2k IUs/day.

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Re:Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death by _delirium on Sunday November 27, 2011 @12:31PM (#3282825)

It might be worth considering at any latitude; despite the association with sunlight, the NIH notes that "perhaps surprisingly, geographic latitude does not consistently predict average serum 25(OH)D levels in a population". (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind)

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Re:Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death by psykotic on Sunday November 27, 2011 @04:15PM (#3283432)

Get your levels measured and dose accordingly. Most people are deficient in a number of areas, and you can get screened for them all at once.

In the absence of that, if you're just making a qualified guess, you should probably dose significantly more than 1,000-2,000 IUs/day. The daily intake required for toxicity to be an issue are very high (sustained total intake of around 20,000 IUs/day). It's also generally recommended that D3 supplements are taken alongside a K2 supplement.

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Re:Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death by jerf on Sunday November 27, 2011 @09:08PM (#3284123)

"Most people are deficient in a number of areas, and you can get screened for them all at once."

May I double-click on that? What do you mean? Who do you go to, and what exactly do you say to them? Which areas are you referring to?

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Re:Low vitamin D linked to heart disease, death by psykotic on Sunday November 27, 2011 @09:59PM (#3284253)

Talk to your doctor. They can take a blood test and send it off to analysis. It can be somewhat expensive. When I said "all at once" I didn't mean that a simple biochemical test can reveal all deficiencies, obviously, but that a single blood test can be sent off to have many different tests done. I'm not yet sure exactly how it works in the US, sorry.

The kind of deficiencies I had in mind would be vitamin (e.g. D, K), mineral (e.g. iron, calcium) and electolytic (e.g. magnesium, potassium).

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