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New research suggests that Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of metabolic syndrome. The findings, which were recently presented at the 92nd Annual Meeting & Expo of The Endocrine Society in San Diego, showed that in a sample of 1,300 Dutch men and women, 65 and older, nearly half were Vitamin D deficient. Among the group of participants, nearly 37 percent also had metabolic syndrome.
This statistical alignment between Vitamin D deficiency and metabolic syndrome is interesting, noted researcher Marelise Eekhoff from the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam. It may signal that adequate Vitamin D is important in preventing diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, which are known to be connected to metabolic syndrome.
Previous studies have linked metabolic syndrome to insufficient or deficient levels of circulating Vitamin D. The cause-and-effect relationship is based in Vitamin D’s role in insulin secretion, and Vitamin D deficiency has been connected to impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance.
Metabolic syndrome is a complex of disorders that increases the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. One in five people suffers from metabolic syndrome and its prevalence increases with age. Some tallies indicate that it afflicts 25% of the U.S. population.
In the Eekhoff study, researchers looked at the blood samples of 1,300 seniors from Amsterdam’s Longitudinal Aging Study. They found that participants whose blood levels of circulating Vitamin D (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D) were lower than 50 nanomoles per litre were also far more likely to have metabolic syndrome when compared to people with levels over 50.
According to the Office of Dietary Supplements in the United States, 75 nmol/L or more is the accepted desirable blood concentration of Vitamin D for overall health and disease prevention. Vitamin D is known to prevent osteopenia, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, fractures, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and heart disease. Several studies have also shown that Vitamin D may reduce the risk of Type 1 diabetes and several types of cancer.
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