Taking daily vitamin D supplements helped improve heart function in heart failure patients, according to a new study.
Participants who took vitamin D3 on a regular basis experienced an 8 percent improvement in their heart's pumping function from 26 percent to 34 percent, according to the study conducted at the U.K.'s University of Leeds. The researchers' latest findings could reduce patients' need to be fitted with implantable cardioverter defibrillators.
"This is a significant breakthrough for patients," said lead researcher Dr. Klaus Witte of the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds. "It is the first evidence that vitamin D3 can improve heart function of people with heart muscle weakness - known as heart failure. These findings could make a significant difference to the care of heart failure patients."
The latest study involved more than 160 heart patients. Researchers said all study participants were already being treated for heart failure using beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting-enzyme-inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) and pacemakers.
Participants were randomly assigned to take either a vitamin D3 pill or a placebo tablet for the duration of one year. Researchers measured changes in heart function by using echocardiograms, or health ultrasound scans, and looking at the ejection fraction - or how much blood pumps from the heart with each heartbeat.
Researchers noted that the ejection fraction of healthy individuals is generally between 60 and 70 percent. However, in this ejection, fraction percentage is significantly less in heart failure patients. Researchers noted that the average ejection fraction of patients included in the latest study was 26 percent.
Analysis of the study data revealed that the ejection fraction or pumping function of the 80 patients who took the vitamin D3 increased from 26 percent at the start of the study to 34 percent at the end of the study.
Witte and his team said that the latest findings suggest that taking vitamin D3 regularly may decrease patients need to undergo invasive surgery to be fitted with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a costly medical device used to detect and correct irregular heart rhythms.
"ICDs are expensive and involve an operation. If we can avoid an ICD implant in just a few patients, then that is a boost to patients and the NHS as a whole," explained Witte.
The findings were presented April 4 at the American College of Cardiology 65th Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago.
