Health briefs: Study links vitamin D to heart health

Vitamin D might aid heart health

Vitamin D, known for helping with calcium absorption and for building strong bones, now appears to play a role in heart health. Researchers found that of otherwise healthy adults over 50, those with extremely low levels of vitamin D were almost twice as likely to have died or had a stroke than those with adequate amounts. They also had more coronary artery disease and were twice as likely to have developed heart failure. The findings, presented this week at an American Heart Association conference in Orlando, don't prove that lack of vitamin D causes heart disease; they only suggest a link that calls for further study.

Don't wait to care about heart issues

If you're thinking you can wait until you're older to worry about heart health, think again. Most American adults — a whopping 74 percent — are at high risk of developing heart disease sometime in their lives, according to research presented at the American Heart Association conference. Current guidelines call for treating those expected to have problems in the near future, which might cause many people to put off adopting heart-healthy habits. "This is a huge segment of the population that we're mostly ignoring because we're only focusing on the 10-year estimated risk,'' said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, co-author of the study and associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University. "It is hard to undo damage that has been done if we only focus treatment later in life."

Times staff, wires

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