Vitamin D supplementation does not appear to prevent major adverse cardiovascular events, or reduce the incidence of heart attacks, stroke, or dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease

In June 2019 researchers from the USA and Jordan published their review of the medical scientific literature to assess the association between vitamin D supplementation and reduced cardiovascular risk and the incidence of heart attacks, stroke or cerebrovascular accident, and dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease. A total of 21 studies were included in the review involving 83,291 patients (average age 66 years; 61, 943 (74%) female) of whom 41,669 received vitamin D and 41,622 received placebo. Results showed that vitamin D supplementation, when compared with placebo, was not associated with reduced major adverse cardiovascular events. In addition it was not associated with the incidence of heart attacks, stroke or dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease. The results were generally consistent when gender, vitamin D level, vitamin D dosage, formulation, and presence or absence of concurrent calcium administration were taken into consideration.

Barbarawi M et al. Vitamin D Supplementation and Cardiovascular Disease Risks in More Than 83 000 Individuals in 21 Randomized Clinical Trials: A Meta-analysis. JAMA Cardiol. 2019 Jun 19. [Epub ahead of print]

Leave a Reply