London, Feb 22 (IANS) The middle-aged and the elderly with high vitamin D levels could cut down risks of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43 percent, says a new research.
A Warwick Medical School research team carried out a systematic review of studies examining vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders.

Cardiometabolic disorders include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods and is also produced when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis.

Fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are good sources of vitamin D, and it is also available as a dietary supplement.

Researchers looked at 28 studies including 99,745 participants across a variety of ethnic groups including men and women.

These studies were published between 1990 and 2009 with the bulk being published between 2004 and 2009. Half of them were conducted in the US, eight were European, two studies were from Iran, three from Australasia and one from India.

The studies revealed a significant association between high levels of vitamin D and a decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (33 percent compared to low levels of vitamin D), type 2 diabetes (55 percent reduction) and metabolic syndrome (51 percent reduction).

The literature review was led by Johanna Parker and Oscar Franco, assistant professor in public health at Warwick.

“We found that high levels of vitamin D among middle age and elderly populations are associated with a substantial decrease in cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome,” said Franco, according to a Warwick release.

“Targeting vitamin D deficiency in adult populations could potentially slow the current epidemics of cardiometabolic disorders,” he concluded.

These observations were published in Maturitas.