A new study reports that in overweight and obese children and adolescents, a deficiency of vitamin D is associated with early markers of cardiovascular disease.
Lead author Marisa Censani, M.D., pediatric endocrinologist and director of the Pediatric Obesity Program in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine, states that “Pediatric obesity affects 17 percent of infants, children, and adolescents ages 2 to 19 in the United States, and obesity is a risk factor for vitamin D deficiency.”
The findings suggest that deficiency of the vitamin may have negative effects on specific lipid markers, with an increase in cardiovascular risk among children and adolescents. This is one of the first studies to assess the relationship of vitamin d deficiency to both lipoprotein ratios and non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol, specific lipid markers impacting cardiovascular risk during childhood, in children and adolescents who are obese or overweight.
Vitamin D was found to be significantly associated with an increase in atherogenic lipids and markers of early cardiovascular disease. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, non-HDL cholesterol, as well as total cholesterol/HDL and triglyceride/HDL ratios, were all higher in vitamin D-deficient patients—compared to patients without vitamin D deficiency.
The results support screening children and adolescents who are overweight or obese for vitamin D deficiency, and the potential benefits of improving vitamin d status to reduce cardiometabolic risk.
