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Vitamin D deficiency exerts delayed effect on hypertension

25 September 2009

MedWire News: Premenopausal women who have a deficiency in vitamin D face a 3-fold increased risk for developing systolic hypertension in later life compared with their peers who have normal levels, study findings show.

The research was carried out by Flojaune Griffin (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA) and colleagues who presented the findings at the recent American Heart Association 63rd High Blood Pressure Research Conference in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

For the study Griffen et al examined 559 Caucasian women aged an average of 38 years who in 1992 were enrolled on the Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study.

The women underwent annual systolic blood pressure assessments until the study endpoint in 2007. In addition, a single measurement of vitamin D status was taken from each participant in 1993 by way of the blood concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D).

Griffen et al report that at the study onset in 1993, 2% of women had been diagnosed or were being treated for hypertension and an additional 4% of the women had undiagnosed systolic hypertension defined as 140 mmHg or greater.

Regression analysis revealed that women with a vitamin D deficiency had a modest and non-significantly increased risk for concurrent systolic hypertension relative to women in the normal range, with an odds ratio of 1.1.

Meanwhile, 15 years later in 2007, 19% of the women had been diagnosed or were being treated for hypertension and an additional 6% had undiagnosed systolic hypertension, a significant increase from baseline.

Notably, women who had a vitamin D deficiency in 1993 had a significantly increased risk for systolic hypertension in 2007 relative to women with normal levels in 1993, with a risk ratio of 3.0 after adjusting for age, fat mass, anti-hypertensive medication use, and smoking.

“Our study highlights the importance of vitamin D in the risk for high blood pressure later in life, a major health problem in the USA,” Griffin said at the conference.

However, she added that there is currently no general agreement about the optimal intake of vitamin D. Some researchers recommended intake of 400–600 IU daily is inadequate and suggest a much higher daily intake, from 1000–5000 IU.

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009

American Heart Association 63rd High Blood Pressure Research Conference; Chicago, Illinois, USA: 23–26 September 2009