New vitamin D research is a wake-up call for the overweight and obese

Heart Guard

Right now, it’s winter in Australia. And do you know what the high temperature is in Sydney today? It’s probably in the low-to-mid 60s Fahrenheit. That’s what I call a tolerable winter forecast. (This past July 22 – in the “dead of winter” – their high was 79!)

I’m thinking about the Southern Hemisphere winter today because the e-Alert has quite a few Australian readers, and because I’m wondering if our Australian friends might be in all-round better health than readers in the U.S. and Europe.

Why? Two words: sunshine vitamin.

And while we’re at it, I’ll add four more: type 2 diabetes prevention.

Lowest to highest

Okay, “2” isn’t a word. But you see what I’m getting at. Clearly, Australians have plenty of opportunity to soak up the UBV rays that the body turns into cancer-fighting vitamin D. And clearly (according to a new study) vitamin D also helps ensure optimal heart health and lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

A research team headed up by Provident Clinical Research in Illinois compared general health measures to dietary and supplement intake in more than 250 healthy subjects. Blood levels of vitamin D were also measured.

Data analysis revealed striking results: Those with the lowest levels of the vitamin were more than three times more likely to have metabolic syndrome risk factors compared to subjects with the highest D levels.

As I’ve noted in past e-Alerts, metabolic syndrome is a set of symptoms that increases risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. In this study, the lowest levels of vitamin D were linked to these metabolic syndrome symptoms:

• Lower HDL cholesterol levels
• Higher triglyceride levels
• Greater abdominal fat
• Greater body mass index

Most significantly: Higher blood levels of vitamin D were clearly linked to higher HDL and lower triglycerides – two important keys to good heart health.

Troubling speculation

So…how might deficient vitamin D intake have an affect on the development of abdominal fat and body mass index?

The Provident researchers speculate that because vitamin D is fat soluble, it’s easily stored in abdominal adipose tissue.

More troubling is the possibility that the circulating concentration of vitamin D may be naturally reduced in overweight and obese individuals. The researchers believe that this problem might be overcome with a greater intake of vitamin D, but further research is needed to confirm that theory.

In the e-Alert “The D Master” (6/2/09), you can read more about vitamin D benefits and supplement guidelines, straight from the researcher who’s most responsible for alerting the scientific community to the pervasiveness and dangers of vitamin D deficiency.

Source:
“Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D is Independently Associated with High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and the Metabolic Syndrome in Men and Women” Journal of Clinical Lipidology,
Published online ahead of print 7/21/09, lipidjournal.com