The Heart of the Matter

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as heart disease and stroke are the number-one killers of both men and women. Can UVB and vitamin D prevent CVD and save your life?

By Dr. Mark Sorenson

Tanning Trends - August 2007 Issue

 Cancer is a word that strikes fear into the heart of every American, and in the wake of the recent Creighton University study showing that vitamin D supplementation prevents cancer, many pharmacies and supplement stores, especially in Canada, sold out of vitamin D. The study appeared in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and showed that women who took vitamin D supplements for the last three years of a four-year study reduced their risk of cancer by an astonishing 77 percent!

Lost in the enthusiasm for this study, however, was another study that assessed the influence of blood vitamin D levels on selected risk factors for heart disease- a disease that kills more Americans than all cancers combined. The findings emerged from an analysis of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

When those with the lowest vitamin D levels we compared to those with the highest levels, the lower level group showed that hypertension was 30 percent higher diabetes 98 percent higher, obesity 129 percent higher and triglyerides 47 percent higher. They concluded that "Prospective studies to assess a direct benefit of cholecalciferol (vitamin D) supplementation on cardiovascular disease risk factors are warranted." In other words, it may be time to revisit public health recommendations for vitamin D intake.

A better idea would be to assess a direct benefit of sunlight exposure or tanning bed exposure on these and other risk factors for heart disease and other CVD. Typically, supplements contain a minuscule 200-400 IU. Twenty minutes of full-body sunlight exposure can produce as much as 15,000 IU, and a tanning bed with high UVB levels can produce the same amount ion 10 minutes.

There are other indications that UVB and vitamin D reduce the risk of CVD. Consider the following:

1. Vitamin D reduces heart attack risk. A 1990 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology establishes that people with above-average vitamin D have a 57 percent reduced risk of heart attack when compared to those with below-average levels.

2. Vitamin D reduces arterial calcification. Low levels of Vitamin D lead to calcification of the arteries, one of the major causes of arterial plaquing that leads to CVD and heart attacks., according to a study done by U.S. researchers. A 1999 study published in Kidney International shows that when vitamin D levels are low, parathyriod hormone (PTH) becomes high, which leads to calcification of arteries. And another study published in 2004 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that PTH levels are mush lower in those who use tanning beds, and vitamin D levels are also optimized in people who use tanning beds.

3. UVB and vitamin D reduce hypertension. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a well-known risk factor for both heart attack and stroke. According to a Boston-based study for Channing Laboratory, men with the lowest vitamin D levels have 6.13 times the risk of hypertension as men with the lowest levels. Women with the lowest levels have 2.67 times the risk. In a 1998 study involving Dr. Micheal Holick, exposure to UV that increase blood levels of Vitamin D to 40 ng/ ml (80nmol/l) was hown to reduce hypertension. In three sessions per week of full-body UVB light treatments, carried on for six weeks, vitamin D levels rose 162 percent, and average blood pressures dropped six points on both systolic (higher number) and diastolic (lower number) measurements.

4. UVB diminishes the risk of heart failure. In a 2002 study done in Spain, it was found that hospital admissions for heart failure were 25 percent higher than average in January and 33 percent lower in August. This indicates that UVB is exceptionally important in reducing the incidence of heart failure, and that a tanning bed's UVB would help prevent the excess of winter heart failure.

5. Vitamin D inhibits arterial inflammation. Arterial inflammation is a major CVD risk factor. High levels of C-reactive protein (CRP)- and inflammatory protein- are considered very important predictors of heart disease. In 2005, Armin Zitterman showed that vitamin D supplements can lower CRP levels as much as 40 percent. Inflammation can also be caused by proteins called cytokines that work as part of the immune system. These proteins are either pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory. Vitamin D has the amazing ability to inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine production (shown in 1992 in a Denmark study) while stimulating production of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Vitamin D is truly a miracle hormone, and the most efficient manner of stimulating its production is through tanning bed use. So when it comes to matters of the heart, not only eat correctly, but protect yourself by keeping vitamin D levels high through exposure to UVB, and use vitamin D3 supplements when UVB is not available.