HHS HealthBeat (April 2, 2010)

Vitamin D and different hearts

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Many people take vitamin D hoping for protection against conditions such as atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. But one study indicates the vitamin might not affect everyone the same way.

At Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Dr. Barry Freedman wanted to see if vitamin D levels in African-Americans had the same potential association as in whites. In whites, researchers think it may protect against atherosclerosis, which can be detected by lower levels of calcium in arteries.

But Freedman found:

"In African-Americans, the higher the vitamin D levels, the higher the level of calcium deposit in the arteries, in contrast to what we think is happening in the Caucasian population." (9 seconds)

The study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 21, 2011