When heart disease damages your arteries or blocks the heart’s blood supply, cardiologists have tools designed to stop the harm and restore blood flow. But do any of these treatments actually fix the damage?
Don’t count on it. Mainstream medicine is at a loss to heal deteriorating blood vessels or heart tissue.
However, research at Ohio State shows that one vitamin can step in where conventional medicine stops – and actually spur the healing of the cardiovascular system. . .
The vitamin I’m talking about is vitamin D3, the nutrient that your skin can make when exposed to the sun. Studies at Ohio State show that vitamin D3 helps fix damage to endothelial cells, the cells that line the walls of blood vessels and the chambers of the heart.1
This new discovery is massively important. No other nutrient or substance has been found that can aid this kind of repair.
"There are not many, if any, known systems which can be used to restore cardiovascular endothelial cells which are already damaged, and vitamin D3 can do it," says researcher Tadeusz Malinski. "This is a very inexpensive solution to repair the cardiovascular system. We don't have to develop a new drug. We already have it."
Malinski also points out that “many patients who have a heart attack will have a deficiency of D3. It doesn't mean that the deficiency caused the heart attack, but it increased the risk of heart attack.”
Heals Your Endothelial Cells
His studies have traced how vitamin D3 affects endothelial cells, which are key players in determining the health of arteries and the heart. These investigations show that vitamin D3 has a big impact on the body’s use of nitric oxide (NO), a molecule which influences the contraction and relaxation of artery walls. These actions control blood flow in the arteries and help prevent potentially dangerous blood clots.
On top of that, the research shows that vitamin D3 helps heal cardiovascular damage caused by high blood pressure, diabetes and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). The vitamin also significantly shrinks the chances of having a heart attack and limits oxidative stress – microscopic destruction that can harm the cells lining the arteries.
And while malfunctioning endothelial cells can lead to high blood pressure and what’s called ischemic “events” – things like heart attacks and strokes – vitamin D3 can push back against these dangers.
That’s why Malinski believes doses of vitamin D3 should be given to people after they have strokes, heart attacks or any other problem that involves compromised blood flow.
Helps With Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Other research into the benefits of vitamin D3 now shows that it may also help control the painful discomforts of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
A review study at the University of Sheffield in England indicates that vitamin D3 supplements can soothe IBS symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pain.2
It is estimated that about 15 percent of Americans suffer with IBS. And the Sheffield study shows that many of these folks are deficient in vitamin D3.
According to the Sheffield scientists, if you have IBS, you should have your vitamin D levels checked.
"It is evident from the findings that all people with IBS should have their vitamin D levels tested and a large majority of them would benefit from supplements,” says researcher Bernard Corfe.
You Need to Have a Blood Test to Learn Your Vitamin D Level
IBS has presented a conundrum for modern medicine – researchers have not been able to clear up what causes it although it is evident that a diet high in processed foods and days filled with chronic stress can make it worse.
But now it looks like a lack of vitamin D3 may also be involved. And in my opinion, everybody should have their vitamin D levels checked. You can’t determine how much you need without a blood test – and all the evidence I’ve seen (which is a lot) – indicates that almost everyone is drastically below the optimum D level of 60.
Most people could profit from taking enormous doses of D3 – anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 units per day, but very few people do that, and very few doctors encourage it (because of an old myth that the vitamin may be toxic in doses higher than a few hundred units). Ignorance about this vitamin continues to be rampant.
