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Vitamin D is created by exposure to the sun.
It is an essential vitamin that helps keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.
It is well known that lack of vitamin can cause bone deformities, but more and more research associates vitamin D deficiency with cardiac complications.
A recent study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research suggests that vitamin D deficiency alone can lead to heart failure, possibly through resistance to insulin.
Indian researchers have found that cardiac insulin causes functional heart damage in animals with low vitamin D levels.
The use of glucose and fatty acids – essential fuels for the generation of energy in the heart – is affected by insulin resistance in heart cells.
Insulin plays a vital role in regulating cellular metabolism in many body tissues.
To investigate whether a vitamin D deficiency could cause heart damage similar to other risk factors, such as consuming high fat and high calorie foods, the researchers devised an experiment with rats.
After 20 weeks, the hearts of the vitamin D deficient animals were found to be defective.
They showed similar molecular and functional changes to rat hearts in the high fat and fructose diet group.
"The heart dysfunction caused by vitamin D deficiency was very similar to that of the other risk factor – the high-calorie diet – sometimes even to a greater extent according to certain parameters. For example, heart inflammation was higher in the vitamin D deficient diet than in the high calorie diet, "the researchers said.
The researchers discovered a greater expression of the genes involved in the enlargement of the heart muscles.
These results were confirmed when scientists measured the thickness of the heart wall, the inside diameter of the chambers and the contraction capacity of the heart. The posterior wall thickness of the left ventricle was increased in rats with vitamin D deficiency.
This occurs when the cardiac workload increases and becomes pathological if no corrective action is taken, eventually leading to heart failure.
Under such conditions, the pumping action of the heart can no longer satisfy the body's metabolic demands, explained the study.
"We have shown the connection between vitamin D deficiency and cardiac dysfunction and its consequences for heart failure. Vitamin D and its signaling modulate sensitivity to myocardial insulin, whose insufficiency induces a decrease in glucose utilization, a response to remodeling and heart failure, "explained Dr. Sanjay Kumar Banerjee, Principal Investigator and Principal Investigator at the Faridabad Institute for Health Sciences and Technology Research (THSTI), in an interview with India Science Wire.
As the NHS explained, from late March / early April to late September, most people should be able to get all the vitamin D they need from the sun.
However, some people do not get enough vitamin D because of the sunlight because they have very little or no exposure to the sun.
The Ministry of Health recommends that a person take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year if:
- Are not often outside – for example, if you are fragile or confined to the house
- Are in an institution like a retirement home
- Usually wear clothes that cover most of their skin on the outside
It is important that a person does not exceed the recommended dose, said the NHS.
"Taking too much vitamin D supplements over a long period of time can lead to excessive calcium buildup in the body (hypercalcemia). This can weaken the bones and damage the kidneys and the heart, "warned the health agency.
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