Vitamin D Supplements Could Help Lower High Blood Pressure: Researchers

Vitamin D levels in the body are causally linked to high blood pressure, researchers said. According to the study team, the research findings support the idea that Vitamin D pills can be used to lower hypertension.

Previous research has shown that Vitamin D deficiency can lead to several health problems. The current study shows that there is a cause-and effect relationship between vitamin D and hypertension or high blood pressure.

"In view of the costs and side effects associated with antihypertensive drugs, the potential to prevent or reduce blood pressure and therefore the risk of hypertension with vitamin D is very attractive," said study leader Professor Elina Hyppönen from the University of South Australia, according to a news release.

The study was based on data from the D-CarDia collaboration, which involved more than 146,500 individuals of European ancestry from Europe and North America.

Concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D in the body are generally used to measure a person's vitamin D levels. Researchers in the present study used two gene variants that affect 25(OH)D concentrations to see if there was a link between vitamin D levels and hypertension.

The team found that for each 10 percent increase in vitamin D levels, there was a decrease in diastolic blood pressure (-0.29 mm Hg) and systolic blood pressure (-0.37 mm Hg). An increase in vitamin D concentration also reduced the risk of developing hypertension by 8.1 percent.

"Although [this] study is an important step towards delineation of the role of low vitamin D concentrations in the pathogenesis of hypertension, much remains unknown. Confirmation of these results in independent, similarly powered studies will be necessary as will evidence of a corresponding benefit for the prevention of diseases caused by hypertension such as stroke," said Dr Shoaib Afzal and Dr Børge Nordestgaard from Copenhagen University Hospital and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark in a linked commentary.

Whether or not vitamin D supplements help lower high blood pressure can be determined only via rigorous randomized intervention, Afzal and Nordestgaard said in a linked commentary.

The study is published in the journal The Lancet.

Supplements and vitamin pills should always be taken after consulting a physician.