Significance of Vitamin D Status in Elderly Patients with Systemic Arterial Hypertension

Hypertension is a significant contributing factor to cardiovascular disease, accounting for a significant mortality and morbidity. The elderly and aging population of our planet, a risk factor for vitamin D deficiency, requires a deeper understanding of the importance of Vitamin D. Musculoskeletal effects of Vitamin D has been well known. Extra-musculoskeletal effects of Vitamin D in cardiovascular health, cancer, diabetes and immunity has been a hot topic for the last decade. Even though Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to play a role in the aggravation of cardiovascular health, understanding of the fundamental mechanisms and the solidity of the data to suggest a causation between Vitamin D deficiency and non-musculoskeletal effects is mostly lacking and these issues have been largely neglected by attending physicians. In this chapter, we explain the proposed mechanisms of the effects of Vitamin D on extra skeletal tissues, summarize complex mechanisms with a special emphasis on hypertension in the elderly and talk about Vitamin D analogues and validity of evidence with regard to non-skeletal effects of Vitamin D in the body.

Keywords: Aging, Apoptosis, Calcitriol, Cardiovascular aging, Cardiovascular disease, Doxercalciferol, Elderly, Hypercalcemia, Hypertension, Klotho, Osteoblast-like cell, Osteoclast-like cell, Paricalcitol, Renin angiotensin aldosterone system, Vascular smooth muscle cell, Vitamin D, Vitamin D analogues, Vitamin D deficiency, Vitamin D receptor, 25-Hydroxyvitamin D.