Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. Şekip Altunkan said that hypertension is a multifactorial global disease whose prevalence is increasing in society.
The effect of vitamin D on hypertension and heart disease has been studied for 40 years. Increases and decreases in these diseases, especially in certain seasons, have made us think about the effect of vitamin D.
While many studies in animal experiments have found positive results regarding the effects of vitamin D on hypertension and heart diseases, very controversial results have been obtained in human experiments.
However, in our country, vitamin D has recently been presented as a miracle drug, and patients are literally bombarded with vitamin D. Dr. Şekip Altunkan stated that we should be careful about this issue and not forget that excessive vitamin D treatment can be harmful.
Vitamin D deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder, thought to affect around one billion people worldwide. Calcium plays an important role in the development of bones. Vitamin D helps absorb calcium from the intestines and enter the bones.
Vitamin D is transformed into an effective form after the complex processing of certain substances obtained from animal and plant foods in the body. The liver, kidneys and skin play an important role in the transformation of vitamin D into an effective form. Exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun is important in the biology of vitamin D.
The first findings about the importance of vitamin D deficiency were found in the early twentieth century. It was determined that the cause of rickets, a disease seen in children that causes severe bone damage and can lead to death, was vitamin D deficiency, and later, with many studies, the formation and effects of vitamin D were understood. However, there is still a long way to go and a lot of scientific research needs to be done on vitamin D.
Factors affecting vitamin D levels in the blood include diet, sun exposure, outdoor exercise, and skin color. However, there is no consensus on the level of vitamin D and which diet is beneficial. The generally accepted limit is 20 ng/ml. The best level is considered to be between 40-60 ng/ml. Levels above this are not recommended and can be harmful to the person. It should not be forgotten that vitamin D poisoning can occur at very high levels. Many researchers accept 12.5 ng/ml as the lower limit of vitamin D levels. As can be seen, there is no full consensus among researchers on this issue.
Most studies examining the direct effect of vitamin D therapy on hypertension have shown no effect in lowering blood pressure, although some have shown promising results when given in combination with antihypertensive medications. Difficulties remain in proving that vitamin D has a direct antihypertensive effect on its own. Studies with higher doses, larger populations, and longer treatment durations are needed to further evaluate the role of vitamin D in hypertension. However, there are ethical challenges to planning such studies and they are difficult to overcome.
According to Dr. Şekip Altunkan, it is wrong to give patients unnecessary vitamin D treatment by presenting vitamin D as a cure-all. This time, excessive increases in the blood can cause negative results. If the blood value is low, vitamin D can be given, but the calcium and vitamin D levels in the blood should be checked at certain times so that they do not reach the toxic limit.
