Low vitamin D at birth raises risk of hypertension in childhood

Wang and co-authors considered low vitamin D as levels less than 11 ng/ml in cord blood at birth and less than 25 ng/ml in a subject’s blood during early childhood. In addition to the 60% higher risk of hypertension, kids who recorded persistently low levels of vitamin D had double the risk of elevated systolic BP between ages 3 and 18.

Vitamin D is found in eggs, salmon and fortified milk products, and the human body creates it when we’re exposed to sunlight. In a release, Wang said researchers are still unsure of what constitutes optimal circulating vitamin D levels during pregnancy and early childhood, and as always the team’s results will need to be taken with a grain of salt until they’re replicated in larger populations.

“Currently, there are no recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to screen all pregnant women and young children for vitamin D levels,” Wang said. “Our findings raise the possibility that screening and treatment of vitamin D deficiency with supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood might be an effective approach to reduce high blood pressure later in life.”