Low dietary vitamin D predicts 34-year incident stroke: the Honolulu Heart Program.

Key to protecting you brain is keeping it taped into a good blood supply. A stroke is a brain bleed – ruptured or clogged blood vessels that cut of the brain’s supply of oxygen and other nutrients. Vitamin D deficiency is shockingly prevalent in the US. The rates hit 90-100% in populations with darker skin, especially in northern latitudes. Vitamin D deficiency is linked depression, cancer, and heart disease and this study study examined 7,385 Japanese-American subjects between the ages of 45 to 68 years and found that after 34 years, those with lower levels of Vitamin D had significantly higher rates of incident stroke compared to those with higher levels of Vitamin D.

Authors G Kojima, C Bell, RD Abbott, L Launer, R Chen, H Motonaga, GW Ross, JD Curb, K Masaki
Institution John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii
Publication Name Stroke: A Journal Of Cerebral Celebration
Publication Date August 2012

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Vitamin D deficiency has been reported to contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease, especially stroke. We examined the relationship between dietary vitamin D intake and 34-year incident stroke.
METHODS:
The Honolulu Heart Program is a prospective population-based cohort study of 8006 Japanese-American men in Hawaii who were 45 to 68 years old at the baseline examination in 1965 to 1968. Dietary vitamin D intake was calculated using the Nutritionist IV Version 3 software from a 24-hour dietary recall. Subjects with prevalent stroke were excluded, leaving 7385 men followed through 1999 for incident stroke. Subjects were divided into quartiles of dietary vitamin D for analyses.
RESULTS:
During 34 years of follow-up, 960 subjects developed stroke. Age-adjusted rates of incident stroke were significantly higher in the lowest dietary vitamin D quartile compared with the highest (all stroke: 6.38 versus 5.14 per 1000 person-years follow-up, P=0.030; thromboembolic stroke: 4.36 versus 3.30, P=0.033). Using Cox regression, adjusting for age, total kilocalories, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, pack-years smoking, physical activity index, serum cholesterol, and alcohol intake, those in the lowest quartile had a significantly increased risk of incident stroke (all stroke hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.01-1.47; P=0.038; thromboembolic stroke hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.01-1.59; P=0.044) with the highest as the reference. We found no significant associations between dietary vitamin D and hemorrhagic stroke.
CONCLUSIONS:
Low dietary vitamin D intake was an independent risk factor for 34-year incidence of all stroke and thromboembolic stroke in Japanese-American men. Additional research is needed on vitamin D supplementation to prevent stroke.

Drew Ramsey, MD

Drew Ramsey, M.D. is a psychiatrist, author, and farmer. He is a clear voice in the mental health conversation and one of psychiatry’s leading proponents of using nutritional interventions. He is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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