Data published in the most recent issue of the medical journal Cardiovascular Physiology provides encouraging news for people with high blood pressure and heart problems - eating well may be better for you than previously thought. The data shows dramatic reductions in how quickly animals with high blood pressure and existing heart problems develop clinical indicators of serious disease (indicating that a major event, like a heart attack, is likely to occur soon) when diets are rich in vitamin D.

In the study, researchers used a special type of rat that is known to be sensitive to the effects of salt. These rats develop severe high blood pressure and a low grade type of heart problem when fed diets that are high in salt.

The rats were split into two groups, each of which was fed a high salt diet. The diets were identical except that one group's diet had vitamin d added. Researchers found that after 13 weeks of feeding, the group with the extra vitamin d had smaller, healthier hearts than the group missing the extra dose of the vitamin.

How this data will apply to humans is still a subject of some debate, as people may handle vitamin d differently than other animals.