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Posted on Apr 08, 2014, 6 a.m.
Supplementation of Vitamin D each day may improve the ability of the heart to respond to stress.
One cardiovascular risk factor which has recently been validated is the clinical measurement of cardiac autonomic tone. Sophia B. Ahmed, from University of Calgary (Canada), and colleagues enrolled 13 healthy men and women with Vitamin D insufficiency in study in which each participant received a daily dose of Vitamin D supplement of 5,000 IU for 28 days. Subjects were then exposed to a stressor, to which their heart rate variability – a measure of cardiac autonomic tone – was measured. Whereas pre-supplementation an acute stressor was associated with unfavorable sympatho-vagal balance, the team observed that post-supplementation, subjects were better able to maintain proper cardiac autonomic tone.
M.C. Mann, D.V. Exner, B.R. Hemmelgarn, T.C. Turin, D.Y. Sola, L. Ellis, S.B. Ahmed. “Vitamin D supplementation is associated with improved modulation of cardiac autonomic tone in healthy humans.” International Journal of Cardiology, Volume 172, Issue 2, 15 March 2014, Pages 506-508.
