Vitamin D deficiency commonly affects around one billion people around the World. Some research has associated low levels of vitamin D with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension (high blood pressure). However, the evidence supporting vitamin D supplementations to help lower blood pressure has been inconclusive.
This study led by the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon and published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society set out to fill in the information gap, showing an association between higher doses of vitamin D supplementation and lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure among elderly overweight adults.
Additionally, similar trends of lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure were seen at lower doses of vitamin D supplementation, but the most consistent blood pressure lowering outcomes were observed from higher doses of vitamin D supplementation. According to the researchers, their findings suggest the potential of vitamin D supplementation in helping to lower blood pressure among those who are older and overweight (characteristics that have been shown to predispose a person to hypertension).
“Our trial and critical synthesis of data from other relevant [randomized controlled trials] suggest a putative beneficial effect of vitamin D in older populations…” said the researchers.
Vitamin D supplements more effective at higher doses
For this study, 250 overweight participants aged 65+ who were capable of walking were split into two groups. For one year, one group of participants received a low dose of 600 IU per day of vitamin D with calcium citrate and the other group received a high dose of 3,759 IU of the combination per day.
The researchers report that at the six-month and one-year mark of taking the supplements, the high-dose group was observed to have experienced significantly decreased levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared to when they were not taking the supplements at baseline.
Participants in the low-dose did show a similar trend toward lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure, but the levels did not reach the statistical significance of the high-dose group. Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that supplementation lowers blood pressure in older overweight adults, but the effects of the vitamin are more consistent at higher doses.
Calcium Citrate
Calcium citrate is known to help increase calcium levels in the body, and its addition to the supplement serves as a potential variable that may have obscured vitamin D supplementation alone. However, the researchers made note of additional research that suggests boosting calcium levels on its own does not lower blood pressure to the degree that the combination achieved in this study. Additionally, they point to other evidence studying vitamin D’s positive influence on blood pressure that speaks against the possibility of calcium citrate obscuring the findings as well.
However, while vitamin D supplements appear to be the primary contributor associated with lowering blood pressure in this study, the effects of calcium citrate cannot be completely ruled out. Previous research has also associated supplementally increasing calcium levels with the prevention of hypertension, therefore, adding it to the supplements in this study may have additively helped to lower blood pressure. Further research using vitamin D supplements on their own compared to the combination would be needed to determine if this was the case.
More research needed
In addition to comparing the single and combination used in this study, a more diverse population is required to determine the optimal levels among those who are not overweight and/or elderly to lower blood pressure. It may be possible that older overweight people with vitamin D deficiencies require higher doses to optimize the effects of vitamin D supplementation on blood pressure.
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15050-vitamin-d-vitamin-d-deficiency
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23922354
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21191311
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39534319
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/high-blood-pressure/high-blood-pressure-and-older-adults
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16673011
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32951301
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16673011
https://worldhealth.net/news/vitamin-d-deficiency-autoimmune-diseases/
