|  |  | September 28, 2009  Some medical scientists are now listing vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease along with the usual risks obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
According to Dr. James H. O'Keefe, MD, cardiologist and director of Preventative Cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, "Vitamin D deficiency is an unrecognized, emerging cardiovascular risk factor, which should be screened for and treated. Vitamin D is easy to assess, and supplementation is simple safe and inexpensive."
Without enough vitamin D the arteries in the heart and throughout the body are subject to stiffening and thickening by plaque formation inside the vessel walls. Hormones and the immune system are also affected, possibly increasing risk of diabetes; and blood pressure also rises with low levels of the vitamin, specifically, 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
As many as half of the adults in the United States and 30% of teens and children do not have enough vitamin D in their body. The Framingham Heart Study shows that those whose levels are below 15ng/ml double their chances of heart attack in the next five years.
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