SEPT. 25, 2009 — A University of Michigan study showed that more than 80 percent of women are deficient in vitamin D, a status that made them three times more likely to experience high blood pressure, HealthDayNews reported Thursday.

“This study underscores a growing amount of accumulated data that low vitamin D levels are associated with high blood pressure,” Dr. John P. Forman, an associate physician in the renal division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told HealthDayNews. “There are a growing number of studies associating lower vitamin D levels and high blood pressure. This one probably has the longest follow-up.”

Forman added that more research should be conducted.

The University of Michigan study followed 559 women, whose blood was first measured in 1993. The follow up in 2008 showed that vitamin D deficient women — those with lower than 30 ng/ml, or 80 nmol/L as measured in Canada — were three times more likely to have high blood pressure.

Flojaune C. Griffin, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan School of Public health who was the study’s lead author, gave a presentation on her study at the American Heart Association’s conference on high blood pressure research Thursday in Chicago, according to HealthDayNews.

To read the Health Day story click here. http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=631169