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Introduction
Coronary heart disease and strokes are the leading cause of death globally and are more prevalent in men than in women. The risk for these events increases with age. As populations continue to age, the number of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events will probably increase in developed countries. Vitamin D’s effects suggest it could influence CVD. There are vitamin D receptors that are expressed in cells throughout the vascular system. One of these is calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D that reduces inflammation in the body. This study investigated whether supplementing older adults with monthly doses of vitamin D altered the incidence of major cardiovascular events.
Previous research
Several observational studies have been conducted on this topic, which have indicated an inverse correlation between vitamin D concentration and cardiovascular disease. However, some controlled trials have not shown that vitamin D supplements reduce the incidence of major cardiovascular events. This study focused on further investigating the association between vitamin D concentration and CVD.
Summary
Adults aged 60-84 were selected, and the researchers excluded participants with hypercalcaemia, kidney stones and other similar conditions. Before the study, participants completed a questionnaire which reported their lifestyle factors, health conditions and intake of food and supplements containing vitamin D. Every year, the researchers sent 12 study tablets to participants, who were required to take one tablet at the beginning of each month. This was the intervention period, which ended 5 years after the participants were selected. Participants were asked to report how many other supplements containing vitamin D they consumed in a year. They were encouraged to minimise their use of such supplements but were provided a maximum amount that they could consume in order to not interfere with the study. 800 random participants were selected annually and were tested for measurement of vitamin D concentration in the blood.. Cardiovascular events in participants were also reported, using hospital admissions data and mortality data from the Australian health insurance system.
Conclusion
The researchers found that supplementation of vitamin D might reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events, however, the complete effect found was minimal. Further evaluation would be necessary to determine the exact effect of vitamin D on heart events, especially if participants are consuming cardiovascular disease drugs. A major strength of this study was the large sample size, which consisted of over 21,000 people over a period of 5 years. Comprehensive data tools were used to determine the correlation between vitamin D supplementation and cardiovascular events. In conclusion, the study found minimal linkage between vitamin D and cardiovascular events, but a majority of participants’ data corroborated the theory that vitamin D supplementation reduces risk of cardiovascular events, so further research will be conducted into this study.
By Vedika Sabnavis
Sources
Thompson, Bridie, et al. “Vitamin D Supplementation and Major Cardiovascular Events: D-Health Randomised Controlled Trial.” BMJ, vol. 381, June 2023, p. e075230, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075230.
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