From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-362284-942072
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (UPI) -- Vitamin D, known to help prevent cancer and
osteoporosis, may help protect the heart as well, University of
Michigan pharmacologists said.
In the study, treatments with activated vitamin D prevented heart
muscle cells from growing bigger -- hypertrophy, in which the heart
becomes enlarged and overworked in people with heart failure. The
treatments prevented heart muscle cells from the over-stimulation and
increased contractions associated with the progression of heart
failure
The study, published in the July issue of the Journal of
Cardiovascular Pharmacology, found that after 13 weeks, the heart
failure-prone rats on the high-salt diet -- comparable to the fast
food that many humans -- given the calcitriol treatment had
significantly lower levels of several key indicators of heart failure
than the untreated high-salt diet rats in the study. Calcitriol is a
form of vitamin D prescribed by a physician to treat and prevent low
levels of calcium of patients whose kidneys or parathyroid glands are
not working normally.
For many people, taking vitamin D supplements and some sun exposure
are good options, but for those with heart failure will likely need a
drug made of a compound or analog of vitamin D that will more
powerfully produce vitamin D's effects in the heart, Simpson said.