Low Vitamin D: CV Death Disparities

Low Vitamin D Called a Major Culprit in CV Death Disparities

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: January 07, 2010 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Action Points   Note that vitamin D deficiency is often considered a level below 15 ng/mL, while vitamin D insufficiency is considered 15 to 29 ng/mL. Disproportionately low vitamin D levels may largely explain higher cardiovascular death rates among black Americans, researchers said. Adjustment for vitamin D levels erased 63% of the excess age- and sex-adjusted cardiovascular mortality seen in blacks compared with whites, according to Kevin Fiscella, MD, MPH, of the University of Rochester, New York, and Peter Franks, MD, of the University of California Davis. Further adjustment for income levels eliminated the disparity in death from cardiovascular causes almost entirely in their analysis of the 1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. "These results add to existing evidence suggesting that low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels may be an independent, potentially modifiable, cardiovascular risk factor," the researchers wrote in the January/February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine./.../