Vitamin D3 improves heart function: Study

A recent research project, known as VINDICATE, has declared a daily dose of vitamin D3 improves heart function in the people with chronic heart failure.

Dr Klaus Witte, who led the study, said this is a significant breakthrough for the patients.

"It is the first evidence that vitamin D3 can improve heart function of people with heart muscle weakness - known as heart failure. These findings could make a significant difference to the care of heart failure patients,' he added.

Vitamin D3 can be boosted by exposure to sunlight, but heart failure patients are often deficient in it even during the summer because older people make less vitamin D3 in response to sunlight than younger people. Vitamin D3 production in the skin is also reduced by sunscreen.

The study involved more than 160 patients from Leeds, who were already being treated for their heart failure using proven treatments including beta-blockers, ACE-inhibitors and pacemakers.

The participants were asked to take vitamin D3 or a dummy tablet (placebo) for one year. Those patients, who took vitamin D3, experienced an improvement in heart function which was not seen in those who took a placebo.

Changes in heart function were measured by cardiac ultrasound. Heart specialists measure heart function by taking an ultrasound scan of the heart, known as an echocardiogram, and measuring how much blood pumps from the heart with each heartbeat, known as ejection fraction.

The ejection fraction of a healthy person is usually between 60 percent and 70 percent. In heart failure patients, the ejection fraction is often significantly impaired - in the patients enrolled into the VINDICATE study the average ejection fraction was 26 percent.

In the 80 patients who took Vitamin D3, the heart's pumping function improved from 26 percent to 34 percent. In the others, who took placebo, there was no change in cardiac function.

This means that for some heart disease patients, taking vitamin D3 regularly may lessen the need for them to be fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a device which detects dangerous irregular heart rhythms and can shock the heart to restore a normal rhythm.

This study has been presented in American College of Cardiology 65th Annual Scientific Session.