Vitamin D Status, Cardiometabolic, Liver, and Mental Health Status in Obese Youth Attending a Pediatric Weight Management Center

Abstract

Children with obesity had a high prevalence of vitD deficiency, particularly those at risk for hypertension, reduced insulin sensitivity, and central obesity.

Relationship of vitamin D with cardiovascular disease risk factors in adults and adolescents and possible impact on its metabolism from the use of lipid-lowering medication

“…Moreover, many cross-sectional studies in young ages showed that 25(OH)VitD levels correlated with fasting glucose [191,192], fasting insulin [275,276] and/or HOMA-IR [193,220,275], while some did not [274,405]. Similarly, in the present study 25(OH)VitD was not found to be associated with any carbohydrate metabolism marker.…”

“…Later, in adulthood, this might cause myocardial infarction or stroke [104]. Observational studies have showed that children with VitD deficiency or insufficiency had higher risk of an elevated blood glucose level, increased risk of hypertension, and increased risk of metabolic syndrome, a prelude to type 2 diabetes [78,[191][192][193]. These among others CVD risk factors that may be adversely affected by VitD deficiency, will extensively be analyzed below.…”

“…Some studies have failed to detect any association between VitD and insulin resistance in obese children/adolescents [59,192,228,[257][258][259][260][261][262][263]. Other studies however report an inverse association between hypovitaminosis D and measures of insulin resistance and glycaemia in the same ages [192,193,220,[264][265][266][267][268][269][270][271]. Reis et al in a crosssectional analysis of 3,577 fasting, non-pregnant US adolescents aged 12-19 years without diagnosed diabetes, who participated in the 2001-2004 NHANES found a doubling of the odds ratio for elevated fasting glucose among adolescents in the lowest quartile of serum VitD compared with the highest quartile, independent of adiposity [191].…”

Fetuin B links vitamin D deficiency and pediatric obesity: Direct negative regulation by vitamin D

“…While it is must be recognized that genotype, lifestyle and behavioral factors such as diet and the levels of physical activity play critical roles in these epidemics, there is evidence indicating that VD may contribute to the regulation of weight gain, particularly when associated to energy-restricted diets [ 26 , 51 , 52 ]. Despite the clear associations found between body weight composition and VD levels [ 9 , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] ], studies to date have not been able to decipher the causal metabolic signals that link a poor VD status to obesity and its complications [ 26 , 27 ]. In a previous investigation we used a proteomic approach to identify potential circulating biomarkers that could provide a link between VDD and pediatric obesity [ 28 ].…”

“…With the demonstration that VDD rates closely resemble those of overweight and obesity [ 10 ], evidence is accumulating to suggest that there are clear links between obesity and suboptimal VD levels [ 9 , 11 , 12 ]. For example, an inverse relationship has been repeatedly demonstrated between high body fat and low serum 25-OHD in both adults and children, regardless of the index for body fat used, including BMI [ 11 , [13] , [14] , [15] ], waist circumference [ 16 , 17 ], subcutaneous adipose tissue (sAT [ 16 , 18 ]) and visceral adipose tissue [ 16 , 18 ]. Abnormalities have been observed in adipose tissue (AT)-specific metabolism of VD in adult obese subjects, with the SAT VD metabolic enzymes significantly reduced in adult obese individuals and circulating VD levels increasing by 27% with weight loss [ 19 ].…”