7 June 2007

Vitamin D boost for heart health

The lack of winter sunlight for Scots - and other northern European nationalities - could be a factor in the country’s high rates of heart disease, new research at the University of Dundee has found.

A research team led by Professor Allan Struthers, head of the Division of Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Dundee Medical School, found that a dose of vitamin D in wintertime improved blood vessel function, which should in turn decrease the incidence of new heart attacks

The findings will be presented to delegates at the British Cardiovascular Society annual scientific conference in Glasgow today (Thursday June 7th).

Vitamin D is naturally produced by the skin in response to sunlight. In wintertime in countries like Scotland, the relative lack of sunlight means the skin produces virtually none of the vitamin.

"Some of the things we already know about heart disease is that it is more common in northern latitudes, and that deaths from heart disease are more prevalent in winter than summer," said Professor Struthers.

"There may be lots of reasons for this, but one thing which our research suggests could be important is that vitamin D deficiency is very common over the winter season in Scotland."

The Diabetes UK funded pilot study - initiated by Dr Justine Davies from the University’s Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Dr Miles Witham, Lecturer in Ageing & Health - was carried out over the winter of 2005/6 among Tayside patients with Type 2 diabetes.

Half of the patients taking part in the trial were given a single high dose of vitamin D and were found months later to have improved vascular function as measured by the standard technique of flow mediated dilatation . Vitamin D produced no adverse effects.

"This is the beginning of something as it now needs wider study, which is already being initiated by Dr Witham here in Dundee," said Professor Struthers.

"Of the routine diabetic patients that we surveyed in Tayside, 50% were vitamin D deficient in winter. That figure rises to 70% to 80% in patients with heart failure or strokes and we now need to see if Vitamin D benefits those patients also."

"We would express a note of caution because obviously exposure to sunlight carries other risks including skin cancer, so there is a balance that would need to be struck. The safer solution in this case may be a vitamin D replacement tablet rather than overdosing on sunlight, which we would not recommend."

The Dundee study has been funded by Diabetes UK.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Dundee has been hailed as "a world-leading centre" for research into diabetes by Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK. The charity is a major funder of diabetes research at the University.

The Dundee Diabetes Research Centre, a joint venture between the College of Life Sciences and the College of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing at the University of Dundee, currently hosts 27 research teams that have a shared interest in diabetes research, ranging from the study of single molecules to complex clinical studies.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk