Obese Youth Lacking Vitamin D by Amy Wermuth

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Obese Youth Lacking Vitamin D

A new Hasbro Children's Hospital study has established that the majority of overweight youth are deficient in vitamin D. The researchers in the study say that further examination of vitamin D levels in overweight youth is needed and additional studies to determine if normalizing vitamin D levels will help to lower the health risks associated with obesity. The study is published in the May edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health and is now available online in advance of print.

Since 2007, obesity in youth and young people has reached epidemic extent, with nearly 16.5% of those between the ages of 10-17. The amplified occurrence of obesity could very well lead to amplified risk of health problems and diseases including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and risk of cancer.

Many of the aforementioned health consequences of obesity have also been linked to vitamin D deficiency. Additionally, poor vitamin D levels are extensively linked with other such health conditions like muscle performance. When you consider that overweight children and youth could also have problems working out and getting exercise (do to decreased muscle performance), it is a one, two punch. Maybe our parents were not that off-base when they told us to “drink our milk” when we were little! That was when vitamin D milk was what we drank that is.

The lead author in the study, is a pediatrician that specializes in adolescent medicine at Hasbro Children's Hospital, this doctor said that screening overweight youth for vitamin D levels by measuring blood levels has become part of the practice at the Rhode Island children’s hospital since 2007.

For this specific new study, this doctor and other researchers studied the occurrence of low vitamin D status amongst 68 overweight youth, and studied the relevance of treatment of low vitamin D status in these same youths.

In the study, it was determined that low vitamin D levels were present in every one of the girls and in 91% of the boys. Of those with lacking vitamin D level or, 43 of them had a duplicate measurement of vitamin D level after original treatment. While there was a considerable boost in vitamin D levels after treatment, serum vitamin D levels stabilized in only 28% of these patients. Repeat various courses of vitamin D treatment in the youths participating in this study that did not stabilize their vitamin D levels after the first round of treatment, did not stabilize their low vitamin D levels.

It is truly concerning that the occurrence of low vitamin D level among overweight youth in this study is larger than reported in the past for ages 10-17 and only 28% of these youths were even able to reach standard vitamin D levels through one round of treatment.

The chief source of vitamin D is production in our skin. Achieved through a process that is motivated by exposure to sun. Also, small amounts of vitamin D are result from certain foods like oily fish variations, eggs, and from various fortified foods and of course taking vitamin D.

The study does accept that perhaps these children in the study may have been devoid of eating vitamin D rich foods.

Because of these alarming results in this study not only are more tests called for, but we must also assess whether stabilizing vitamin D levels in overweight young people will help lower the health risks associated with being overweight. We cannot accept a future where young children develop the diseases and health conditions that are commonly associated with much older people than the age group 10-17.

By: Amy Wermuth