{"id":7576,"date":"2009-11-25T09:40:32","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T13:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=7576"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:39:15","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:39:15","slug":"physicians-explore-link-between-vitamin-d-deficiency-and-hypertension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2009\/11\/physicians-explore-link-between-vitamin-d-deficiency-and-hypertension\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicians Explore Link Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Hypertension"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Drs.<\/a>
Drs. William White and Pooja Luthra are studying the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and hypertension. Photo by Lanny Nagler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vitamin D is known to be important to bone health, but what about heart health?<\/p>\n

UConn Health Center physician-scientists are looking into a possible link between vitamin D deficiency and high blood pressure.<\/p>\n

“Often patients don\u2019t realize they have a vitamin D deficiency, or are unaware of its relationship with health problems other than bone disorders,” says Dr. William B. White<\/a>, professor of medicine and a hypertension expert in the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center<\/a>. White served as the study\u2019s principal investigator.<\/p>\n

White and Dr. Pooja Luthra<\/a>, assistant professor of medicine and an endocrinologist in the New England Musculoskeletal Institute<\/a>, are recruiting patients with a diagnosis of treated or untreated high blood pressure and a vitamin D level in the insufficient range of 12 to 29. They also must not be taking regular doses of vitamin D.<\/p>\n

“Epidemiologic studies have shown an association between measured vitamin D deficiency<\/a> and increased risk for incident hypertension that is independent of age, body mass index, physical activity, race, and menopausal status,” Luthra says. “There is a need for clinical research studies that evaluate the effects of antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive patients with documented vitamin D insufficiency.”<\/p>\n

“One of the possible mechanisms of elevated blood pressure in patients with vitamin D deficiency is the activation of renin, an enzyme produced in the kidney,” White says.<\/p>\n

Research involving genomic mouse models found that those with vitamin D deficiency developed elevated production of renin and the protein angiotensin II, leading to hypertension.<\/p>\n

In the 14-week, double-blind, randomized trial, participants will first receive either vitamin D replacement or the renin inhibitor aliskiren, then both medications in combination. White and Luthra will assess the corresponding changes in blood pressure both in the office setting and over a 24-hour period using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, calcium and vitamin D concentrations, and biochemical parameters involving the renin-angiotensin system.<\/p>\n

“We have reason to believe there\u2019s a connection here, and this research will increase our knowledge regarding vitamin D as a cardiovascular risk factor,” White says. “We will try to establish the effects of vitamin D replacement and the impact of direct inhibition of renin in patients with vitamin D deficiency on blood pressure. In the end, we hope that we can spread awareness about the association so that if patients with hypertension ask their doctors, ‘What if I have vitamin D deficiency?’ then their doctors will be prepared to make informed decisions about what to do about this problem.”<\/p>\n

The UConn Health Center study is supported by an independent $480,000 investigator-initiated grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in East Hanover, N.J., over the next three years.<\/p>\n

More information about the study is available by calling study coordinator Patricia Keltonic, at 860-679-4116.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drs. William White and Pooja Luthra at the University of Connecticut Health Center are investigating a possible link between vitamin D deficiency and high blood pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-7576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 18:35:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7576"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36949,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions\/36949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7576"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=7576"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}