VOL 32 (3) 2021: 314–327 | REVIEW ARTICLE 314 Indonesian Journal of Pharmacy Indonesian J Pharm 32(3), 2021, 314-327 | indonesianjpharm.farmasi.ugm.ac.id Copyright © 2020 THE AUTHOR(S). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Further Understanding about the Mechanism of Vitamin D on Blood Pressure Farapti Farapti, Chusnul Fadilla Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, 60115 Indonesia Info Article ABSTRACT Submitted: 20-05-2020 Revised: 28-07-2021 Accepted: 20-09-2021 *Corresponding author Farapti Farapti Email: farapti@fkm.unair.ac.id Globally, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and hypertension is both increasing. Various studies have also identified that both are likely to have causality relationships. The mechanisms and possibilities of such relationships will be discussed in this article. This literature study takes systematic review and meta-analysis research as well as randomly other research to complete the discussion on the role, effects, and mechanisms of vitamin D in blood pressure. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that can be produced by the body and the most proper measurement using 25(OH)D. Low vitamin D is one of the risk factors for increased blood pressure (BP). Administration of vitamin D seems beneficial to lowering BP through various mechanisms including inhibiting renin gene expression, maintaining PTH levels and calcium homeostasis, vasodilatation BP, and decreasing sympathetic nerve activity. Research with vitamin D supplementation reported random data between effective and whether or not to decrease BP. Vitamin D can be significantly beneficial in only some conditions although overall it has increased levels of 25(OH)D. However, although vitamin D is very good for health improvement, the use of vitamin D specifically as an antihypertensive still needs more understanding and research on the conditions that have proven effective in their use. Keywords: vitamin D, blood pressure, hypertension INTRODUCTION The prevalence of hypertension (HT) in the world continues to increase. A study in 2015 reported that globally in the last four decades, the number of people who experienced an increase in blood pressure (BP) continued to increase from 594 million to 1.13 billion (Zhou et al., 2017). The high prevalence of HT occurs not only in adults or the elderly, but also in children and adolescents (Akbari et al., 2017; Genovesi et al., 2011; Shah et al., 2018). But, in the increasingly high age group, the prevalence of HT also increases (Keenan et al., 2011). The increasing trend in HT is associated with certain risk factors, such as aging, obesity, smoking, and gender differences (Hosni et al., 2018). However, what is interesting now is the incidence of hypertension which is influenced by the condition of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) (Ullah et al., 2010). Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is a global public health problem that can occur at any age and data show the Middle East region has the highest prevalence (Palacios & Gonzalez, 2014). Even in Europe, VDD is widespread and its prevalence meets pandemic criteria (Cashman et al., 2016). In his article, Holick (2017) also states that VDD is a pandemic. Until researchers in India suggested that there is a need for vitamin D fortification in food nationally (Aparna et al., 2018). Most countries experience VDD in the elderly (Bandeira et al., 2006), in women particularly (Boucher, 2012; Semba et al., 2010). According to van Schoor & Lips (2018), groups at risk of VDD include children, especially those with low birth weight, adolescents, pregnant women, older people, and non-Western immigrants. All this time, vitamin D is more often associated with bone health along with calcium minerals. Apparently, vitamin D also has an influence in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Meehan & Penckofer, 2014), although most provide inconsistent data which gives rise to controversy (Apostolakis et al., 2018; Elamin et al., 2011; Palacios & Gonzalez, 2014; Parker et al., 2010; Pittas et al., 2010; Wimalawansa, 2018). Hypertension is the