Action Points
African Americans have higher rates of hypertension than Caucasian Americans in the U.S. and also have lower circulating levels of 25(OH)D. In this study, 3 months of vitamin D supplementation had a small to modest effect to lower systolic blood pressure.
(MedPage Today) April 11, 2013 Vitamin D supplements may modestly lower blood pressure for African American adults, a clinical trial showed. Blood pressure fell by over 1 point more per 1,000 international units of cholecalciferol given per day than with placebo over a 3-month period [ ...], John P. Forman, MD, MSc, of the Brigham and Women's Hospital's Kidney Clinical Research Institute in Boston, and colleagues found.
[...] Larger, longer studies are needed to confirm an effect, Forman's group cautioned.
But if confirmed, boosting vitamin D could be a good avenue to reduce blood pressure or prevent hypertension in this population, which has higher prevalence of hypertension but lower circulating vitamin D levels than reported in Caucasians, the group suggested. The best-supported mechanism for vitamin D to impact blood pressure is via downregulating the renin-angiotensin system, which is believed to be a stronger mediator of blood pressure among African Americans they explained.
Vitamin D supplement trials have had mixed blood pressure results but included relatively few African American participants. ...
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Hyp... By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Posted By: Jen Fad
Friday, April 12th 2013 at 10:18AM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
