from St. Michaels Hospital, Toronto
Over the last few years, there have been suggestions that heart disease begins much earlier in people’s lives—including teen years or even earlier. A new study in the journal PLOS ONE shows children with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood are likely to have lower levels of bad kinds of cholesterol. Nearly two thousand children from one to five were involved in the study. Previous evidence suggests low levels of vitamin D in adults is linked to cardiovascular disease and other health issues such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto say if vitamin D is associated with cholesterol in early childhood, as their study suggests, then perhaps the factors that lead to cardiovascular disease start early in childhood.