Vitamin D Improves Cardiac Function in Chronic Heart Failure

People suffering from chronic heart failure are often deficient in vitamin D. So, researchers set out to see if supplementing vitamin D would improve the condition of people with chronic heart failure. . . .

To find out if vitamin D helped, they gave either 4,000IU of vitamin D or a placebo to 229 people with chronic heart failure caused by left ventricular systolic dysfunction, which means that their hearts were not able to pump enough blood to the body. They were also deficient in vitamin D. The double-blind study lasted one year.

The people who took the vitamin D had their heart function improve. The amount of blood the heart pumped with each beat increased by a significant 6.07%. There was no improvement in the placebo group.

In chronic heart failure, the size of the left ventricle increases as its ability to pump blood decreases. But when people with chronic heart failure took vitamin D, their left ventricles got significantly smaller, indicating long term improvement in heart function. There was no diminishment of size in the placebo group.

This study shows that, along with all the other newly discovered uses of vitamin D, vitamin D benefits people with chronic heart failure.

J Am Coll Cardiol 2016;doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2016.03.508

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