Research paper
Correcting vitamin D insufficiency improves insulin sensitivity in obese adolescents: a randomized controlled trial.
Study answer
What this study found
Vitamin D3 supplementation safely corrected insufficiency in most participants and improved markers of insulin sensitivity compared with placebo. By 6 months, 93% of the vitamin D group had sufficient 25(OH)D, and between-group changes favored vitamin D for fasting insulin (P = 0.026), HOMA-IR (P = 0.033), QUICKI (P = 0.016), and leptin-to-adiponectin ratio (P = 0.045). Fasting glucose did not show a significant between-group change (P = 0.085), and CRP, IL-6, and TNF-alpha were largely unchanged. The authors concluded that correcting vitamin D insufficiency may be a useful adjunct to…
- Study & population
- Randomized controlled trial in obese adolescents with baseline vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency.
- Intervention
- Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) 4000 IU/day was given orally as two indistinguishable 2000 IU pills daily for 6 months.
- Key limitation
- The trial was small, with only 21 participants in the vitamin D arm and 23 in placebo, which limits precision.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND Obese adolescents are at a greater risk of vitamin D deficiency because vitamin D is thought to be sequestered by excess adipose tissue. Poor vitamin D status has been associated with a higher prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, type 2 d…