Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014:810:106-19.
doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-0437-2_6.

The role of vitamin D for cardiovascular disease and overall mortality

Armin Zittermann, Sylvana Prokop
Review

The role of vitamin D for cardiovascular disease and overall mortality

Armin Zittermann et al. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2014.

Abstract

In recent years, it became increasingly clear that vitamin D exerts important pleiotropic effects, besides its well-known effects on extracellular calcium homeostasis and on bone metabolism. This article gives a comprehensive overview of studies on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality with a focus on the most recent data. 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) is the best indicator of vitamin D status. Low 25(OH)D levels are highly prevalent among general populations. Prospective cohort studies support the assumption that poor vitamin D status, e.g., 25(OH) D levels below 30 nmol/l, is independently associated with CVD mortality risk. However, support from randomized controlled trials for a beneficial vitamin D effect on CVD risk is still lacking. Meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies indicate beneficial vitamin D effects on overall mortality as well. There is also likely evidence from meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials that vitamin D may improve overall mortality in elderly people. Therefore, it is reasonable to supplement institutionalized individuals and other people with deficient 25(OH)D levels with daily vitamin D amounts of 20 microg. However, it is also noteworthy that prospective cohort studies provide evidence for an inverse J-shaped association between vitamin D status and overall mortality, indicating increased overall mortality risk not only at deficient 25(OH)D levels but also at 25(OH)D levels above 125 nmol/l. Although there is evidence that high 25(OH)D levels sometimes reflect low availability of the vitamin D hormone 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, future studies are still needed to clarify the association of high 25(OH)D levels with high mortality rates more detailed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

LinkOut - more resources