May 26, 2017 – Vitamin D and Exercise

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Anchor lead: Is there a magic mix when it comes to cardiovascular disease prevention? Elizabeth Tracey reports

What can a study with over 19 years of follow up tell us about preventing cardiovascular disease? Erin Michos, lead investigator and a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, says meeting American Heart Association guidelines for physical activity is important, but so is the right level of vitamin D.

Michos: Those that were physically active that were meeting those recommendations were far less likely to develop heart attacks or strokes over the next 19 years. We show that people with the lowest risk were people that had both adequate vitamin D levels and adequate physical activity. That they were synergistic, that those people who had adequate levels of both had the lowest risk. So future intervention studies might need to look into whether to optimize cardiovascular health whether we ought to optimize vitamin D levels in addition to optimizing people’s activity levels.  :31

Michos says there’s still some confusion regarding vitamin D and whether supplements are appropriate, so that’s an issue under active investigation. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.