Dietary Calcium and Blood Pressure

Letters15 March 1997Dietary Calcium and Blood PressureP. Scott Allender, MD, Jeffrey A. Cutler, MD, MPH, and Dean Follmann, PhDP. Scott Allender, MDNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892Search for more papers by this author, Jeffrey A. Cutler, MD, MPHNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892Search for more papers by this author, and Dean Follmann, PhDNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-126-6-199703150-00019 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE:Dr. Cher points out some inconsistencies between two independently performed meta-analyses [1, 2] on the same research question. A comparison of the two papers shows that Bucher and colleagues identified several studies that we did not. After reviewing several of these studies, we concluded that our MEDLINE search could have been improved by including additional generic terms for dietary factors. However, it was disturbing to discover that Bucher and associates included the study by Singh and colleagues [3], a randomized trial of the effect of guava fruit intake on blood pressure in 145 patients with essential hypertension. Singh ...References1. Allender PS, Cutler JA, Follmann D, Cappuccio FP, Pryer J, Elliott P. Dietary calcium and blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Ann Intern Med. 1996; 124:825-31. Google Scholar2. Bucher HC, Cook RJ, Guyatt GH, Lang JD, Cook DJ, Hatala R, et al. Effects of dietary calcium supplementation on blood pressure. JAMA. 1996; 275:1016-22. Google Scholar3. Singh RB, Rastogi SS, Singh NK, Ghosh S, Gupta S, Niaz MA. Can guava fruit intake decrease blood pressure and blood lipids? J Hum Hypertens. 1993; 7:33-8. Google Scholar4. Tanji JL, Lew EY, Wong GY, Treguboff C, Ward JA, Amsterdam EA, et al. Dietary calcium supplementation as a treatment for mild hypertension. J Am Board Fam Pract. 1991; 4:145-50. Google Scholar5. Cappuccio FP, Elliott P, Allender PS, Pryer J, Follmann DA, Cutler JA. Epidemiologic association between dietary calcium intake and blood pressure: a meta-analysis of published data. Am J Epidemiol. 1995; 142:935-45. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892 PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 15 March 1997Volume 126, Issue 6Page: 492-493KeywordsBlood pressureCalciumClinical trialsHypertensionObservational studiesPotassiumPrevention, policy, and public healthRandomized trialsRegression analysisSystolic pressure Issue Published: 15 March 1997 CopyrightCopyright © 1997 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF DownloadLoading ...