Vitamin D

Abstract Purpose: Obesity is increasing in prevalence worldwide and represents a major international health burden. Pediatric obesity has increased during the prior two decades. Vitamin D plays important roles in promoting bone homeostasis and protecting against cardiovascular events. Several studies have linked vitamin D deficiency and obesity in adult populations. We sought to assess the relationship between serum vitamin D and obesity in children in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: Pediatric outpatients who were 5-14 years of age were included in this study. Body mass index (BMI) was used to classify patients as follows: BMI<85th percentile was regarded as normal body weight; BMI between the 85th and 94th percentile was regarded as overweight; and BMI≥95th percentile was regarded as obese. Serum vitamin D was measured in all patients. Vitamin D deficiency was defined to be a vitamin D level<30 ng/ml. Results: Among the 65 patients included in this study, there were 24 patients with normal body weights and 41 overweight or obese patients. With respect to gender, there were 33 males and 32 female patients. Vitamin D deficiency was more common among overweight and obese patients than among patients with normal body weights; in particular, this deficiency was detected in 26 of the former patients and only 13 of the latter patients. Mean serum vitamin D (in nmol/l) was significantly greater for male patients (27.56±10.80) than for female patients (21.99±11.31; t(63)=-2.031; p=0.046). In addition, mean serum vitamin D (in nmol/l) was significantly greater in the Normal group (50th to 85th percentile in BMI; 29.33±13.97) than in the Overweight+Obese group (≥85th percentile in BMI; 22.17±8.58; t=2.272; p=0.030). Conclusions: Obesity is associated with a significantly lower serum vitamin D level. Additional studies are needed to confirm this finding.

Diabetes is a major and growing health problem worldwide and in the Sudan, zinc and vit D play ‎a functional role on insulin function and glucose tolerance. Study aim to evaluate zinc level in ‎type2 DM patients with vit D deficiency. Cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 type2 DM ‎patients aged between 25-80 years old, classified based on vit D results into two groups, <30 ‎ng/ml considered as cases and >30ng/ml as control. Vit D, zinc and glucose were determined in ‎fasting blood samples, using competitive ELISA and atomic spectroscopy. The percentage of ‎DM was higher among females (63%), and vit D deficiency was common among females (75%), ‎results of BMI showed females more obese than males (77.6% females have BMI > 26.5 ‎compared with 65.9% for males), in males .vit D inversely correlate with BMI, and there was no ‎correlation in females, vit D result in week negative correlation with zinc (r= -0.0195 ), and no ‎association between zinc and blood glucose (P-value = 0.46). Zinc and vit D are essential ‎nutrients in DM patients, thus deficiency lead to early complications in type 2 DM patients, ‎which need regular monitoring