Vitamin D cuts risk of heart disease

COVENTRY, England, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- British researchers say a review of studies shows vitamin D could reduce heart disease and diabetes.

Researchers at Warwick Medical School in Coventry, England, found middle-aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D reduced their chances of developing cardiometabolic disorders such as heart disease or diabetes by 43 percent.

"Targeting vitamin D deficiency in adult populations could potentially slow the current epidemics of cardiometabolic disorders," study co-leader Dr. Oscar Franco said in a statement.

Franco, Johanna Parker and colleagues looked at 28 studies involving 99,745 men and women across a variety of ethnic groups. They found high levels of vitamin D versus low levels reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by 33 percent, the risk of type 2 diabetes by 55 percent and of metabolic syndrome by 51 percent.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that may be taken as a supplement as well as naturally present in some foods -- such as salmon, tuna and mackerel. It is also produced when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis.