I saw my cardiologist last week and we had been communicating, via e-mail, about the benefits of Vitamin D for diabetes and cardiovascular health [adequate vitamin D levels actually prevent the "foam cells" from ingesting more cholesterol and, finally, bursting and turning into a stroke or MI]. He had written back saying that he was now "a Believer". He found that testing his statin patients who complained about myalgias and chronic fatigue for 25-OH Vitamin D revealed that they were ALL low despite the fact that they were well nourished and had no apparent malabsorption issues. They all got better when their vitamin D levels were brought up into the normal range.More »

A class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may provide a boost to cardiovascular health by affecting the way platelets, small cells in the blood involved in clotting, clump together, say researchers at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.

In a study of 50 adults, the researchers found that platelets were slower to clump together, or aggregate, in participants who were taking an SSRI to treat depression. As depression is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, this finding could indicate a beneficial side effect for people who take SSRIs to treat depression, said Evangelos Litinas, MD, Research Associate in the Center's Pathology Department. Dr. Litinas is presenting the team's research at the American Physiological Society's annual Experimental Biology 2010 conference being held in Anaheim, CA from April 24-28.More »