Vitamin ‘D’ deficiency doubles heart attack not high cholesterol levels

Conventional medicine still believes high cholesterol doubles your risk of having a heart attack.If you’re a regular reader, you know that this is flat-out fake news…
But doctors continue to buy into this bad advice and prescribe cholesterol-lowering statins.
It’s what they were taught at medical school. And it’s what they continue to be taught in the Continuing Medical Education courses they are required to take to maintain their medical license.
And because Big Pharma helps fund the costs of these programs this $23 billion-a-year statin scam isn’t going away any time soon.
We know cholesterol doesn’t double your chance of having a heart attack, but a common nutrient deficiency does…
I’m talking about vitamin D.
A large new meta-analysis published in the European Heart Journal looked into the relations between vitamin D levels and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
The researchers looked at data from 268,000 cases of people with CVD and compared it to a control group with healthy hearts. In addition to vitamin D levels, blood pressure and cardiac imaging were also tracked.
They found that more than 150,000 of the participants with heart disease had vitamin D levels that were low or critically low…
Doubling their heart attack risk.
This backs up earlier research. In one study, 95% of patients with acute coronary syndrome had low vitamin D levels. In another study of 10,170 patients, low vitamin D levels were found to be associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, and early death during nine years of follow-up.7
Vitamin D helps your heart in many ways. Eliminating a deficiency can:
• Reduce arterial stiffness, a key predictor of heart attacks
• Increase nitric oxide production to relax blood vessels and improve blood circulation
• Prevent oxidative stress
• Support healthy blood pressure levels
• Lower biomarkers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein
Most doctors will tell you that levels below 30 nmol/L are considered deficient. I don’t agree… While helpful, 30 ng/mL is on the lower end of where I want you to be.
I tell my patients that I want them somewhere between 60 ng/mL and 80 ng/mL.
As one of the first doctors in the country to test vitamin D levels, many of my patients were surprised by how low their vitamin D levels were. Fortunately, they live in a place where it’s easy to bring levels up quickly and easily.
But even if you don’t live in sunny South Florida, I suggest getting outside into the sunshine to increase your vitamin D naturally.
Boost vitamin D levels like your ancestors did
I encourage them to boost their levels the same way their ancestors did – with a practice I call gentle tanning. Here’s how it works:

1. Take it slow at first. If you haven’t spent a lot of time in the sun, start out gradually. If you’re fair-skinned, go outside for about 10 to 20 minutes a day. If you have a darker complexion, then you can push it to about an hour.
2. Put some skin in the game. This means peeling down and getting a good area of your skin exposed. Roll up your sleeves and pant legs. But do wear a hat. Your face gets enough natural sunlight exposure every day.
3. Pay attention to the time. Get out in the sun when your shadow is shorter than you are. Typically, that’s between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. That’s when the sun is highest and rays are strongest so you can get good exposure over a short time. Just 10 minutes in the midday sun can give you 10,000 IU of vitamin D.
   I understand, not everyone can get outside as often as they want. In that case, look for a full spectrum lamp. You can find these lightboxes online. Look for one that gives off 2,500 to 10,000 lux of light to mimic the sun.
   It’s also a good idea to supplement. I recommend vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol. That’s the type of vitamin D made by your own body. Take 5,000 IUs a day or more. And combine it with 45-90 mcg of vitamin K and 600 to 1,000 mg of magnesium to increase absorption.
   Al Sears MD