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Calcium, Vitamin D and Cardiovascular Disease
Kidney and Blood Pressure Research, 06/15/2011
Guessous I et al. – The real impact of calcium and vitamin D on cardiovascular outcomes remains to be documented by appropriate experimental data.
- The relationship between calcium and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has been explored for a long time.
- Studies exploring the effect of calcium intake or calcium supplementation on cardiovascular risk suggest that systolic blood pressure increases under low calcium intake and decreases with calcium supplementation.
- A lower calcium intake has been associated with an increased risk of stroke
- The impact of calcium supplementation on stroke risk remains unclear.
- Calcium supplementation may increase the risk of myocardial infarction.
- The relationship between vitamin D and CVD has been explored more recently.
- Negative correlations between vitamin D levels and the risk of hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke have been reported in several observational studies.
- The effect of vitamin D supplementation on blood pressure is still unclear and no effect of vitamin D supplementation on coronary heart disease or stroke has been clearly demonstrated.
- There is a lack of randomized clinical trials primarily addressing the effect of these parameters on CVD.