For the elderly, heart failure is a big killer, and it's very strongly associated with a vitamin D deficiency, and recent announcements from researches have urged that we need more clinical trials to test this.
Vitamin D Deficiency = 12x More Likely for Heart Failure
The Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil have published research suggesting that heart failure is 12x more likely in older people who have a vitamin D deficiency then those who don't, which was an even more prominent factor in heart failure than obesity was. It is therefore surprising that Vitamin D receives so little media attention.
The study involved 137 Brazilian elderly patients of cardiac problems, which isn't a large sample size, but it reported similar results to research conducted in previous studies on the problem.
Vitamin D is the Inflammatory Response Suppressor
It is hard to understand the direct causal effect of the deficiency on heart failure, and the study doesn't show this, but they did speculate that it may be because vitamin D can suppress the inflammatory response from heart failure.
Here is an extract from the study:
"The risk of heart failure was present in more than half of the elderly and was strongly associated with Vitamin D deficiency and its consequences for increased risk of heart failure suggest a need of dosage recommendations for this vitamin, especially in primary healthcare services."
The study clearly points towards the elderly needing to watch their vitamin D levels, and it has the added benefit of helping with cardiovascular health and bone health. It is especially important to supplement Vitamin D when you're in a darker country such as the UK.
If you want a supplement, our hair, skin and nail gummies contain a good amount of Vitamin D.
More information on Vitamin D can be found here: https://www.ajconline.org/article/S0002-9149(10)01039-8/fulltext
