Nearly 120 million Americans have this health condition, and new research says what you eat could be a key to proper management.
Study: People With High Blood Pressure Needed More of These 6 Vitamins
Published on May 08, 2025
Hypertension, another name for high blood pressure, is a serious health condition affecting almost half of American adults, according to the American Heart Association. If left untreated, high blood pressure can be a “silent killer,” resulting in possible heart attacks or strokes.
Eating a well-balanced diet is one of the American Heart Association’s top recommendations for managing hypertension—something research has backed up.
With that in mind, it’s not surprising that a new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, aimed to “investigate the association between dietary vitamin (A, B6, B9, B12, C, E, and K) intake and hypertension.”
A group of 10 Malaysian-based researchers examined data from 10,031 adults in Malaysia—43.5% of which had hypertension. Some common factors in the individuals with hypertension were: many were more than 40 years old, had an overweight-obese BMI, a lower socio-economic status, or a family history of hypertension.
Participants also answered a questionnaire about their regular diet, as well as how often in the past year they had eaten certain food items. The dietary intake of the vitamins “was calculated based on the Malaysian and U.S. Department of Agriculture food composition databases.”
The link between vitamins and high blood pressure is an important one, as the study says previous research has confirmed the connection between the health condition and vitamin deficiency. Vitamins support blood pressure through the sympathetic nervous system, vascular modulators, calcium channel blockers, and diuretics, according to the research team.
“Despite the fact that vitamins are required only in minimal quantities, their impact on overall health is crucial,” notes the study’s authors.
Though the researchers found decent levels of both vitamins A and C in the diets of general Malaysian adults, the following six vitamins were flagged for “significantly lower intake levels” in patients with hypertension:
- A
- B6
- B9
- B12
- E
- K
The findings suggest that “nutritional deficiencies may exacerbate” hypertension and related complications.
They also emphasized that patients with hypertension should not just focus on vitamin intake—medication is important, too.
Beyond further research into the topic, the researchers also suggest, “Clinicians should consider nutritional status as a vital component of [hypertension] management, encouraging dietary modifications and, where appropriate, supplementation to enhance overall health outcomes.”
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