Make the most of winter sunshine to keep heart healthy
Scientists are encouraging people to make the most of winter sunshine in order to keep vitamin D levels as high as possible in order to boost their cardiovascular health.
Professor Sue Penckofer and colleagues conducted a review of studies linking vitamin D deficiency to cardiovascular disease. Their findings revealed that vitamin D deficiency is linked to ischemic heart disease, hypertension, myocardial hypertrophy, diastolic heart failure, and the metabolic syndrome, and is associated with a 30% to 50% higher risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Vitamin D deficiency is a problem for people living in high latitude countries. It is particularly prevalent in the winter months because days are shorter and people spend more time indoors, however advice to use sun block and avoid exposure to the sun has resulted in many people suffering from chronic vitamin D deficiency.
The authors concluded: “Randomized trials should be designed to target specific physiological concentrations of 25(OH)D…to confirm epidemiological observations that the provision of a simple, well-tolerated, and inexpensive correction of hypovitaminosis D [vitamin D deficiency] could favorably affect the morbidity and mortality of the most common cardiovascular diseases.”
Walli DE, Penckofer S, Sizemore GW. The "Sunshine Deficit" and Cardiovascular Disease. Circulation. 2008;118:1476-1485. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.713339
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VIDEO: Brain Age Workshop
Dr. Eric Braverman, Director of The Place for Achieving Total Health
(PATH Medical), Chairs the
Brain Age Workshop taking place Dec. 9, 2009.
Held in conjunction with the Winter Session of the 17th Annual World
Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies.
The Brain Age Workshop features presentations on Brain Mind Assessment
via Neuropsychological Analysis, Movement Deficiency Syndrome,
Hormones and the Brain, Nootropic Drug Mechanisms, and Traumatic Brain
Injury. View this video to learn about Dr. Braverman’s brain-based
model of aging and age modulation.
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