Vitamin D and Estradiol Help Prevent Heart Disease, Stroke and Diabetes

Vitamin D and estrogen have already shown well-researched results in improving bone health in women. A new Chinese study suggests that this same combination could help prevent metabolic syndrome, a constellation of diseases that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes in postmenopausal women. The results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

The metabolic syndrome has become a major public health problem, affecting 30 to 60% of postmenopausal women worldwide. The progression of abdominal obesity and heart disease leading to a metabolic syndrome increases significantly with age and appears to be directly badociated with the loss of estrogen in postmenopausal women. This has led some researchers to recommend treatment with estradiol in postmenopausal women under the age of six, to prevent heart disease.

Similarly, vitamin D has been badociated with several metabolic syndrome markers, including obesity, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of metabolic syndrome after 20 years of follow-up.

As the synergistic benefits of vitamin D and estrogen are already documented to improve bone health in women, researchers in this new Chinese study have hypothesized that the same interaction could affect the metabolic syndrome. The cross-sectional study included 616 postmenopausal women aged 49 to 86 years who did not take any estrogen or vitamin D / calcium supplements at the start of the trial. He concluded that there was a positive correlation between vitamin D and estradiol.

Specifically, a higher vitamin D content was badociated with a favorable lipid profile, blood pressure and glucose level. Estradiol was negatively badociated with cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure. These results suggest a synergistic role of vitamin D and estradiol deficiency in the development of metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women.

The results are published in the article "Synergistic effects of vitamin D and estradiol deficiency on the metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal Chinese women".

"In this cross-sectional study, low estradiol levels increased the risk of metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women with vitamin D deficiency," said Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, Executive Director of NAMS. Endocrine Society recommends vitamin D levels of 30 ng / mL for postmenopausal women The question of whether adequate levels of vitamin D improve cardiovascular or non-skeletal cognitive benefits remains to be debated and responses are waiting for data from 39, Randomized clinical trials. "