New study finds Vitamin D can 'heal damaged hearts'

A daily dose of vitamin D3 can dramatically improve heart function in people with chronic heart failure, scientists from Leeds University have found.

Researchers studied 160 patients being treated for heart failure using a variety of drug treatments and pacemakers.

Participants who took a vitamin D3 supplement daily for one year experienced an improvement in heart function not seen in those given a placebo.

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"It's quite a big deal. That's as big as you'd expect from other more expensive treatments that we use. It's a stunning effect," Dr Klaus Witte, who led the study, told BBC News.

"It's as cheap as chips, has no side effects and a stunning improvement on people already on optimal medical therapy, it is the first time anyone has shown something like this in the last 15 years."

For some patients, this discovery means regularly taking vitamin D3 could lessen the need for them to be fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator to help correct dangerous heart rhythms, reports The Independent.

Heart failure, which can lead to shortness of breath and exhaustion, affects about 900,000 people in the UK and more than 23 million worldwide.

Vitamin D levels are boosted by exposing the skin to sunlight. It is often lacking in heart failure patients because they tend to be older and less likely to engage in outdoor activities, says the Daily Telegraph.

Dr Witte said that change in lifestyle choices over time – covering our bodies with clothes and living in cities covered in pollution – have led to a new onset of vitamin D deficiency.

"I think Western societies and cultures have led to us becoming vitamin D deficient as a result of our lifestyle choices," he added.