It is estimated that half the adult population may have low levels of vitamin D. The health consequences of having low vitamin D are being very actively researched. Now, in addition to other health consequences such as poor functioning of the immune system, there is evidence that premenopausal women with low vitamin D have a greater risk of high blood pressure.

In this blog there have been several posts about the potential effects of having acceptable vitamin D levels. For instance there is a post High vitamin D levels equals successful weight loss. This post describes how study subjects on carefully controlled diets lost more weight if they had higher vitamin D levels. Another post, Vitamin D helps fight infections, talked about how low vitamin D levels make it harder to fight off infections (including swine flu).

In this new study, premenopausal women with an average age of 38, were tested for vitamin D levels. Blood pressure was tested annually. Fifteen years later, those with lower vitamin D levels had three times the risk of having high systolic (upper number) blood pressure.

For this study high systolic blood pressure was defined as 140 (mm Hg) or higher. To see the classifications of normal, prehypertensive and high blood pressure stages, check out the table on this page.

This research provides more evidence for either getting a sensible amount of sun exposure or making sure that you that you consume enough vitamin D either from fortified foods or supplements.

photo credit: Siege N. Gin