Vitamin C & Lower Blood Pressure in Young Adults

University of California Berkeley researchers reported findings that suggest the possibility that vitamin C may influence blood pressure in healthy young adults. Since lower blood pressure in young adulthood may lead to lower blood pressure and decreased incidence of age-associated vascular events in older adults, this could be good news regarding prevention for those who have a family history of high blood pressure.*

Researchers studied 242 women between the ages of 18 and 21 over a ten year period. Blood levels of vitamin C of the women ranged from 0.22 to 3.13 mg/dL. Taking in consideration race, BMI, dietary fat intake and sodium of the women, researchers found that blood vitamin C levels of these women were inversely associated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

The study suggests that vitamin C may be an important factor in blood pressure regulation, even among healthy young adults. Further investigation of treatment effects of vitamin C on blood pressure is necessary.

Vitamin C can be found in the AREDS formulas as well as Viteyes® Complete and Viteyes Multivitamin AREDS Companion.

*G. Block, C.D. Jensen, E.P. Norkus, M. Hudes, P.B. Crawford. “Vitamin C in plasma is inversely related to blood pressure and change in blood pressure during the previous year in young Black and White women.” Nutrition Journal. 7:35 doi:10.1186/1475-2891-7-35.