According to a new study presented at the American Heart Association's yearly meeting in Orlando, patients with heart diseases and other conditions on the same lines, are more likely to be depressed if they do not have the required amount of Vitamin D in their systems, as opposed to those who have enough of it in them.

Vitamin D, also called "sunshine vitamin", is best produced in the human body when it experiences expose to sunlight. Within a mere 10-15 minutes of being in the sun, the body gets its required amount of Vitamin D for the day, which helps the bones with better calcium absorption. It also occurs naturally in fish and is added to milk and multivitamins.

Two separate studies were conducted by researchers, one linking lack of Vitamin D in heart patients to an increased depression rate, and another linking low levels of Vitamin D to an increased risk of dying from heart diseases and strokes. The associations have been discovered to be more prominent during the winter months.

"We believe the findings are important enough to now justify randomized treatment trials of supplementation in patients with vitamin D deficiency to determine for sure whether it can reduce the risk of heart disease", said study co-author Dr. Brent Muhlestein. Dr. Muhlestein is the Director of Cardiovascular Research at Intermountain's Heart Institute.