White people face a massively increased risk of stroke when they have low levels of the sunshine vitamin D, a major heart conference will hear today.
The findings do not apply to people of African origin, researchers say.
Vitamin D is generated in the body by exposure to sunshine and can also be found in milk and some fortified foods.
The findings come from a study of nearly 8,000 people, of whom some 176 died from stroke over a 14 year period, reported to the American Heart Association conference in Chicago.
Among those studied about six per cent of white people and nearly a third of African Americans had low levels of vitamin D.
The research showed that the six per cent of white people with low levels of vitamin D experienced a double risk of stroke.
Researcher Dr Erin Michos, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, said people could raise vitamin D levels by eating fish such as salmon and tuna, by taking supplements and through "brief" exposure to sunshine.
She said: "Since stroke is the number three cause of death in the United States, it’s important for us to consider low vitamin D as a possible risk factor for stroke at least among whites."
* A second piece of research at the conference calls for "small decreases" in teenage consumption of salt to help prevent blood pressure problems later in life.
Researchers say a three gram daily reduction could halve the number of teenagers and young adults with high blood pressure.
Researcher Dr Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, of the University of California, San Francisco, USA, said: "Reducing the amount of salt that is already added to the food that we eat could mean that teenagers live many more years free of hypertension.
"The additional benefit of lowering salt consumption early is that we can hopefully change the expectations of how food should taste, ideally to something slightly less salty."
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