A new study by The American Heart Association has found women with insufficient vitamin D intake in their premenopausal years are at risk for developing high blood pressure in mid-life.
Researchers followed a group of 559 Caucasian women with an average age of 38 from 1992 through 2007. They found that the premenopausal women who had a vitamin D deficiency at the beginning of the study had three times the risk of developing systolic hypertension 15 years later.
“This study differs from others because we are looking over the course of 15 years, a longer follow-up than many studies,” said the studys co-author Flojaune C. Griffin.
Vitamin D is well-known to be important for bone health. Newer research has also linked a deficiency of the vitamin to decreased immunity and increased risk for some cancers.
Health experts agree that many women do not get adequate amounts of the vitamin.
Vitamin D is found in foods like milk, fish and eggs as well as cod liver oil and . It is also produced in the body after exposure to the sun. It is believed that as little as 10 minutes of daily sun exposure is enough to prevent deficiencies.