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Vitamin D - Helpful for Heartbeat?

Dan from Seattle writes:

Dr. Cannell: For as long as I can remember I have been subject to missed heart systolic beats. I went to a heart specialist about it. He did ECG, etc. and told me that he thought anxiety might be involved as he had the same thing once. In any case my missed systole happened anytime, anxiety or no anxiety. When I got the message from you that vitamin D was involved in heart action I started taking 2000 IU a day. The missed systole stopped after about two months and it is no longer with me. Was it the vitamin D? 

Dr. Cannell replies:

I don't know. If your vitamin D level was low enough to affect your blood calcium the vitamin D would help that. Without 25(OH)D levels, there is no way of knowing what your level was or if your level is in the ideal range now. I personally know of a patient with severe heart disease who refused to go to the hospital. He was on standard medical therapy plus 5,000 IU per day. However, both his severe congestive heart failure and his arrhythmia improved after he started taking 10,000 IU per day.

A case report found sick sinus syndrome disappeared after vitamin D. Other than the case report, I'm not aware of any literature on the subject, one way or the other.

Page last edited: 21 May 2011