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Kwame Osei, 25-OH Vitamin D: Is It the Universal Panacea for Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes?, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 95, Issue 9, 1 September 2010, Pages 4220–4222, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2010-1550
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Obesity has become a global epidemic. Consequently, there are increasing rates of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, sleep disorders, and associated morbidity and mortality. Although there is growing debate on the etiopathogenesis of the global pandemic of obesity, there is no question that increasing calories, concomitant decreases in physical activity, and increasing sedentary lifestyle are major contributors. Typically, obesity is associated with insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia, which has been implicated in the increased cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. Metabolically, obesity is associated with reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high triglycerides and increases in serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and small, dense, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol particles. In addition, obesity is regarded as a proinflammatory state with increases in the oxidative stress burden, free oxygen radicals, and F2-isoprostanes.
However, the associations of obesity and metabolic derangements are very complex. Although there are direct causal relationships of some of these metabolic derangements with obesity, in some situations, the metabolic change can be a consequence of the obesity per se. Recently, several epidemiological studies have reported increasing prevalence of low serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OH vitamin D) levels in several communities around the globe. In contrast to old literature, where specific demographic populations such as elderly patients living in higher latitudes and altitudes, geographical areas with low sun exposure, religious practices, etc. posed greater risk, there are alarming rates of low serum 25-OH vitamin D levels among seemingly healthy populations, especially in the elderly in the Western industrialized world. This has raised several health concerns with regard to the etiologies of the low vitamin D levels and the disease consequences of serum 25-OH vitamin D level alterations in these populations.
