Myocardial Infarction is Inversely Associated with Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 Levels: A Community-Based Study

Abstract

The relation between the plasma level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, the main metabolite of sun-induced vitamin D, and myocardial infarction (MI) was investigated in a community-based case-control study. Some 179 MI patients presenting to hospital within 12 hours of the onset of symptoms were individually matched with controls by age, sex and date of blood collection. MI patients had significantly lower mean 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels than controls (32.0 versus 35.5 nmol/L; p = 0.017), with the case-control differences being greatest in winter and spring. The relative risk of MI for subjects with 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels equal to or above the median was 0.43 (95% confidence limits = 0.27, 0.69) compared to subjects below the median. The decrease in MI risk associated with raised vitamin D3 levels was observed in all seasons. These results provide support for the hypothesis that increased exposure to sunlight is protective against coronary heart disease.

Association between early pregnancy vitamin D status and changes in serum lipid profiles throughout pregnancy

“…Additionally, studies have suggested that low concentrations of vitamin D are related to cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, and congestive heart failure [38,39,40]. It is known that vitamin D plays an important role in the regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis.…”

Vitamin D and public health: an overview of recent research on common diseases and mortality in adulthood

“…The first case-control studies to use the newly developed assay for 25(OH)D found, unexpectedly at the time, that myocardial infarction cases had similar or lower 25(OH)D levels than controls (90)(91)(92) . The initial test of the hypothesis Vitamin D and public health that vitamin D may protect against CVD was a populationbased case-control study from New Zealand, published in 1990, which found a significant inverse association between 25(OH)D levels and risk of myocardial infarction (93) . However, because of the case-control design with collection of blood samples after the onset of disease, uncertainty remained as to whether or not 25(OH)D levels in cases had been affected by the disease process.…”

Vitamin D deficiency in early childhood: prevalent in the sunny South Pacific

“…In New Zealand, reported sunlight exposure has been shown to correlate with serum 25(OH)D concentrations (25) .…”