Long-term effect of calcium-vitamin D3 fortified milk on blood pressure and serum lipid concentrations in healthy older men

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 63; no. 8; pp. 993 - 1000
• Main Authors: Daly, R M, Nowson, C A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-08-2009; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Antihypertensives; Biological and medical sciences; Blood pressure; Calcium; Cholesterol; Clinical Nutrition; Dairy products; Density; Diet; Dietary supplements; Drugs; Epidemiology; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; High density lipoprotein; Internal Medicine; Lipids; Lipoproteins; Long-term effects; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Men; Metabolic Diseases; Milk; Nutrition research; Older people; original-article; Pressure effects; Public Health; Triglycerides; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; Vitamin D; Vitamin D3; Vitamin deficiency; blood pressure; lipids; fortified milk; calcium-vitamin D; men; Human; Calcium; Vitamin; Lipids; Metabolic diseases; Concentration; Inorganic element; Long term; Arterial pressure; Serum; Blood pressure; Hemodynamics; Milk
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2008.79

Background/Objectives:
Some epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that increased dairy consumption or calcium and/or vitamin D supplementation can have a beneficial effect on blood pressure, and lipid and lipoprotein concentrations. The aim of this study was to assess the long-term effects of calcium-vitamin D
3
fortified milk on blood pressure and lipid-lipoprotein concentrations in community-dwelling older men.
Subjects/Methods:
This is a substudy of a 2-year randomized controlled trial in which 167 men aged >50 years were assigned to receive either 400 ml per day of reduced fat (∼1%) milk fortified with approximately 1000 mg of calcium and 800 IU of vitamin D
3
or to a control group receiving no additional fortified milk. Weight, blood pressure, lipid and lipoprotein concentrations were measured every 6 months. Participants on lipid-lowering (
n
=32) or antihypertensive medication (
n
=39) were included, but those who commenced, increased or decreased their medication throughout the intervention were excluded (
n
=27).
Results:
In the 140 men included in this study (milk,
n
=73; control,
n
=67), there were no significant effects of the calcium-vitamin D
3
fortified milk on weight, systolic or diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or triglyceride concentrations at any time throughout the intervention. Similar results were observed after excluding men taking antihypertensive or lipid-lowering medication or limiting the analysis to those with baseline calcium intakes <1000 mg per day and/or with hypovitaminosis D (25(OH)D <75 nmol/l).
Conclusions:
Supplementation with reduced-fat calcium-vitamin D
3
fortified milk did not have a beneficial (nor detrimental) effect on blood pressure, lipid or lipoprotein concentrations in healthy community-dwelling older men.