According to the US researchers, the lack of sunshine during winter may cause diminishing vitamin D levels in the body and lead to heart woes.

Sunshine is needed to the body to produce vitamin D, due to less daylight and spending more time indoors in winter can slowdown this process.

Study author Sue Penckofer, who is a professor at the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University in Chicago, says in a university news release: “Chronic vitamin D deficiency may become the cause ofhigh blood pressure, heart disease and metabolic syndrome.”

In their study, Sue and team reviewed many such studies that associated heart disease to vitamin D deficiency. According to these studies, severe heart disease or heart death rates are 30 to 50 percent higher in the patients with sun-deprived heart diseases.

Proper vitamin D levels can’t be managed only by diet, and treatment options like vitamin D2 or D3 may prove helpful to reduce the risk of severe heart diseases or death, the researchers concluded. 30-60 ng/mL of 25(OH) vitamins D is considered the preferred range in the body.

“Routine test for vitamin D deficiency are not recommended by the most physicians. But still many experts agree that vitamin D deficiency may be a risk factor for heart disease in adults and people who experience fatigue, depression, or joint pain should their vitamin D levels tests,” said Penckofer.

The study has been published in the current issue of the journal Circulation.