https://newsroom.heart.org/news/heart-attack-risk-halved-in-...
https://www.hcplive.com/view/target-d-optimized-vitamin-d-do...
There are two main caveats to the TARGET-D study. First, this was presented at the American Heart Association scientific sessions, but the full manuscript isn’t out yet. It’s possible the results will end up not being statistically significant, having a methodological flaw, and so on. In the presented results, the reduction in heart attack risk was statistically significant but the change in overall death and stroke risk had a p value > 0.05. Second, while Vitamin D seems to be an effective intervention to reduce heart attack risk, we don’t yet know whether Vitamin D is an independent marker of heart disease risk or whether it’s reflecting known mechanisms such as inflammation and calcification.Aww that's bad.
I remember years ago they claimed that a bacterium was using arsenic instead of phosphorus - turns out the data they produced was all made up:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1197258
This was here in this article most likely not the case, I assume, but still it is bad to talk about the data without having published the article already.
The study was presented at the AHA scientific sessions; full manuscript isn't out yet. It's in the caveats section in the article.
I'm taking same dose, 50000UI but bi-weekly and it's D3, not D2.
I would like to bring my D levels up, but not at the expense of kidney stones.
Well, that is strange though. Because if you have such an effect, should you not include this? If macrophages are less active, perhaps infection rates go up, which can contribute to death. Perhaps not to the amount of the 52% gains mentioned here, but the website does not mention this at all whatsoever; the word "macrophages" occurs only twice on total.
> Participants in the experiment arm who stayed within 40-80 ng/mL of vitamin D had a 52% lower risk of a repeat heart attack.
The study did use supplements to get people into that range if necessary, but the important thing is to keep your Vitamin D in that range, not specifically to just take supplements.
There’s a lot of claims online that everyone’s Vitamin D is too low and we should all be taking very high dose supplements, but it’s getting exaggerated. My doctor said she’s seeing a huge number of patients coming back with excessively high Vitamin D levels after taking supplement doses recommended by influencers. It happened to me, too, with what I though was a conservative dose of Vitamin D (5K IU, not even taken every day)
So you really have to check. Even though I work indoors and wear sunscreen a lot, apparently my diet and limited sun exposure alone are sufficient for staying in this range. Others will have different results. Don’t guess!
Also remember that Vitamin D levels change slowly. Supplementation can build up and accumulate in the body over time if you’re taking too much. You want to stabilize on a dose and then check in 3-6 months. Some people get a low Vitamin D result and start taking high doses every day, then a year or two later they’re into hypervitaminosis D and have no way to clear it other than waiting for it to be processed out.
brandonb•1h ago
I've been working in heart health in 10 years and I was surprised at the magnitude of the effect here.
I hope it holds up as they move toward the final publication. Vitamin D supplementation is cheap and this could have a huge benefit.
tehjoker•58m ago
SketchySeaBeast•55m ago
bookofjoe•49m ago
fjordofnorway•44m ago
Supermancho•43m ago
tehjoker•34m ago
Aurornis•3m ago
When the topic came up recently at a get together everyone could recall their relative Vitamin D levels (too low, normal) from recent checkups.
It’s common, at least in the US areas where I’ve lived.
tocs3•24m ago
Aurornis•5m ago
Every single one of them included Vitamin D testing in the annual checkup.
Two of my jobs in the past few years have had wellness programs that offered free Vitamin D testing along with a couple other things (A1c, lipids)
It’s very common in the United States at least. I know this goes against the “US healthcare bad” narrative but one of the difficulties with our costs is that we get more testing and procedures. Cutting those costs is going to be hard because people like the freedom to have their doctor order common tests
amanaplanacanal•8m ago
classichasclass•1m ago
skribb•49m ago
brandonb•30m ago