Beating Down Heart Disease

The farther away from the equator you live, the higher your blood pressure get. What gives? Is it in the air? The water? The food? No, it’s in the sky – the sun, or lack thereof.

Because of vitamin D’s actions in the body, sun exposure has a dramatic effect on heart and circulatory disease. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a very serious condition that is the main cause of stroke and heart attack. If you live in s sunny climate, you are less likely to have high blood pressure than if you live somewhere with less sunlight at certain times of the year. People tend to have healthier blood pressure during the summer than during the winter because there’s more sunlight available – and thus more vitamin D in the body. When exposed to the same amount of sunlight, people with fairer skin have levels of vitamin D (the darker your skin, the more melanin there is in it, and consequently the more difficult it is for you to produce vitamin D from the sun). There’s now specific evidence that people who live in sunnier climates have fewer heart attacks. Heart failure is also associated with vitamin D deficiency.

Hypertension: The Silent Killer

One in four adult Americans – fifty million in all – suffers from hypertension, the main sign of which is high blood pressure. More than half of Americans older than sixty have hypertension. It’s expected to affect 1.6 billion people worldwide by the year 2025. Despite its prevalence, high blood pressure is often ignored or undiagnosed because it has no symptoms. However, hypertension is a prime risk factor for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in this county. It’s a chief factor in our nation’s struggle with chronic disease, disability, and even death. Because it is an insidious and deadly disease, hypertension is sometimes called the silent killer.

We know that blood vessels have vitamin D receptors. The active form of vitamin D will enhance contraction of the heart muscle and improve vascular smooth-muscle function. We know that activated vitamin D alters inflammatory activity, which is a major factor in the development of atherosclerosis. And there is evidence that the active form of vitamin D regulates the major blood-pressure-regulating hormone rennin in your kidneys. The gathering evidence on vitamin D’s active role in regulating blood pressure has prompted numerous studies lately, as researchers continue to look for clues to conquering this silent killer.