Low baseline Vitamin D and Vitamin K anticipates higher blood pressure in 6 years. Vitamin D was measured by D25 and Vitamin K by dp-ucMGP. Low D and K were defined as values below 50 and 323 respectively.

Hypertension

Prospective Study

April 2017

Low vitamin D and K status are both associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. New evidence from experimental studies on bone health suggest an interaction between vitamin D and K; however, a joint association with vascular health outcomes is largely unknown.

To prospectively investigate whether the combination of low vitamin D and K status is associated with higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 402 participants and with incident hypertension in 231 participants free of hypertension at baseline. We used data from a subsample of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, a population-based cohort of Dutch participants aged 55-65 years.

Vitamin D and K status were assessed by VitD25 and dp-ucMGP concentrations (high dp-ucMGP is indicative for low vitamin K status) in stored samples from 2002-2003. Vitamin D and K status were categorized into 25-hydroxyvitamin D <50/≥50 mmol/L and median dp-ucMGP <323/≥323 pmol/L.

During a median follow-up of 6.4 years, 62% of the participants (n=143) developed hypertension. The combination of low vitamin D and K status was associated with increased systolic 4.8 mm Hg and diastolic 3.1 mm Hg blood pressure compared with high vitamin D and K status. A similar trend was seen for incident hypertension: hazard ratio=1.62 for the low vitamin D and K group.

The combination of low vitamin D and K status was associated with increased blood pressure and a trend for greater hypertension risk.