Dietary vitamin D intake, cardiovascular disease and cardiometabolic risk factors: a sex‐based analysis from the ATTICA cohort study

Abstract

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the association between dietary vitamin D intake and 10-year first fatal/nonfatal cardiovascular disease (CVD), conventional CVD risk factors and surrogate markers related to inflammation, coagulation, insulin resistance, liver and renal function. Methods: The ATTICA study was conducted during 2001-2012 including 1514 men and 1528 women (aged >18 years) from the greater Athens area, Greece. Dietary assessment was based on a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Daily intake of vitamin D was calculated using a standardised food database. Follow-up (2011-2012) was achieved in 2020 participants (n = 317 cases). Results: Ranking from first to third vitamin D tertile, CVD events were 24%, 17% and 12% for men (P = 0.002) and 14%, 10% and 11% for women (P = 0.59). Inverse associations between vitamin D and CVD in total sample [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.76 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.60-0.97] and in men (HR = 0.66 95% CI = 0.49-0.89) were observed, and lost after adjusting for inflammation/coagulation markers; for women, no significant trends were observed. Regarding 10-year onset of conventional risk factors, inverse associations of vitamin D with hypertension in men (HR = 0.62 95% CI = 0.39-0.99) and transition to metabolically unhealthy status in women (HR = 0.69 95% CI = 0.51-0.93) were observed. Significant inverse associations for C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and fibrinogen in both sexes, whereas these were revealed only in women for insulin resistance. Conclusions: Contradicting the neutral/modest associations in vitamin-D supplementation trials, increased food-generated vitamin D may protect against hard and intermediate CVD endpoints, implying different paths between sexes.

Drug repurposing strategies in the development of potential antifungal agents

“…Vitamin D is widely used to regulate calcium and phosphate metabolism for bone health (Ng et al 2019 ). Recent studies have found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and even COVID-19 (Kouvari et al 2020 ; Meltzer et al 2020 ). Metformin, originally used to treat diabetes, has so far more than a dozen potential new functions including the treatment and prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mental illness such as infantile autism and cognitive disorder (Tseng 2015 ; Dy et al 2018 ; Shiers et al 2018 ; Arrieta et al 2019 ; Cheung et al 2019 ; Lee et al 2019 ; Mohan et al 2019 ) .…”

Associations of Plasma 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D and Dietary Vitamin D Intake with Insulin Resistance in Healthy Japanese Women

“…Dietary vitamin D was not associated with the risk of diabetes in a meta-analysis (18). Previous studies on vitamin D intake and insulin resistance generally observed no association (14,19,20); however, some studies reported an inverse association with blood glucose (21) or insulin resistance in women (22).…”

Association of CYP24A1 gene, Vitamin D deficiency and heart diseases in Pakistani patients

“…Different epidemiological studies have reported increased occurrence of coronary artery disease and vitamin D deficiency in countries located away from the equatorial regions and in wintertime when exposure to sunlight is limited (18). Studies have also proposed a likely association of vitamin deficiency with the immediate and long-term prognosis of acute myocardial infarction (MI) as this deficiency was observed quite frequently in patients of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (19). Additionally, an association of vitamin D levels with the number of coronary vessels affected is the reason claimed for observance of complications associated with MI as well as a repetition of unfavorable cardiac outcomes, etc., in people with low Vit D (18).…”

“…The Health Professionals Follow-up Study observed about eighteen thousand males for ten years and noted a positive correlation of reduced vitamin D levels with raised AMI risk, keeping in mind various risk factors (19) Furthermore, prospective studies have reported a high occurrence of vitamin D deficiency in individuals admitted to the hospital for acute MI. A multicenter study on two hundred and thirty-nine patients suffering from acute coronary syndrome indicated that 96% of them suffered reduced vitamin D levels at the time of admission to the medical care facility.…”