Findings published yesterday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, may help explain why many people with no known risk factors - such as high blood pressure or smoking - inexplicably develop heart attacks. It also suggests it may be possible to reduce the incidence of the often fatal condition by popping an inexpensive (vitamin D) pill that is widely available in pharmacies and supplement stores.

The new finding may help explain why heart attack incidence has a peculiar distribution. It rises during the winter months, and is more common in northerly countries, such as Canada, regardless of whether people have other proven risk factors.

The vitamin seems to explain the trend because it has a strong seasonal fluctuation, falling in people’s bodies during fall and winter when sunlight is too feeble to make any of it in the skin.

Read more here and the abstract from the study here