Effects of a Short-Term Vitamin D3 and Calcium Supplementation on Blood Pressure and Parathyroid Hormone Levels in Elderly Women

Abstract

Calcium supplementation is effective in reducing blood pressure in various states of hypertension, including pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia. In addition, calcitropic hormones are associated with blood pressure. The hypothesis is that short-term therapy with calcium and vitamin D 3 may improve blood pressure as well as secondary hyperparathyroidism more effectively than calcium monotherapy.The effects of 8 weeks of supplementation with vitamin D 3 (cholecalciferol) and calcium on blood pressure and biochemical measures of bone metabolism were studied. The sample consisted of 148 women (mean Ϯ SD age, 74 Ϯ 1 yr) with a 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25OHD 3 ) level below 50 nmol/L. They received either 1200 mg calcium plus 800 IU vitamin D 3 or 1200 mg calcium/day. We measured intact PTH, 25OHD 3 , 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 , blood pressure, and heart rate before and after treatment.Compared with calcium, supplementation with vitamin D 3 and calcium resulted in an increase in serum 25OHD 3 of 72% (P Ͻ 0.01), a decrease in serum PTH of 17% (P ϭ 0.04), a decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 9.3% (P ϭ 0.02), and a decrease in heart rate of 5.4% (P ϭ 0.02). Sixty subjects (81%) in the vitamin D 3 and calcium group compared with 35 (47%) subjects in the calcium group showed a decrease in SBP of 5 mm Hg or more (P ϭ 0.04). No statistically significant difference was observed in the diastolic blood pressures of the calcium-treated and calcium-plus vitamin D 3 -treated groups (P ϭ 0.10). Pearson coefficients of correlation between the change in PTH and the change in SBP were 0.49 (P Ͻ 0.01) for the vitamin D 3 plus calcium group and 0.23 (P Ͻ 0.01) for the calcium group. 1-3). In addition, other reports suggest that calcium intake may have effects in a variety of unrelated diseases such as arterial hypertension (4 -7), cancer of the colon (8, 9), and prevention of nephrolithiasis (10). Furthermore, an association of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 [1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 ] and blood pressure has been shown in normotensive men (11), myocardial infarction was inversely associated with plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D 3 (25OHD 3 ) levels in a community-based study (12), and higher blood pressure in elderly women correlated to increased bone loss in a recently published prospective study (13). On the other hand, dietary calcium intake fails to meet recommended levels in virtually all categories of Americans (14, 15), and hypovitaminosis D affects both Americans (16) and Europeans (17).We have previously shown that short-term supplementation with vitamin D 3 and calcium improves body sway and secondary hyperparathyroidism and therefore prevents falls and subsequent nonvertebral fractures in elderly women (18,19). We have now extended our studies to the effects of short-term supplementation with vitamin D 3 and calcium on blood pressure, as vascular smooth muscle is a target organ for vitamin D (20). The role of calcitropic hormones in the regulation of blood pressure is unclear (21-23). To our knowledge this is the ...

Oral supplementation with 25(OH)D3 versus vitamin D3: Effects on 25(OH)D levels, lower extremity function, blood pressure, and markers of innate immunity

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Vitamin D and musculoskeletal health, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity and cancer: Recommendations for clinical practice

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Vitamin D and neurocognitive dysfunction: Preventing “D”ecline?

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