High dose of vitamin D supplements improves insulin resistance in obese kids

A new study published in the European Journal of Pediatrics suggests that a high dose of vitamin D supplementation (above 4000 IU/d) might improve insulin resistance and lower a number of cardiometabolic risk markers on child and adolescent overweight/obesity (OW/OB).

Children and adolescents who are overweight or obese are becoming more commonplace across the world. It has been shown that vitamin D deficiency is partly responsible for childhood and teenage overweight and obesity. Hao Gou and team's systematic review and meta-analysis intends to evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin D supplements on child and adolescent overweight/obesity.

From the beginning until June 20th, 2022, Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Web of science were searched. The effectiveness of vitamin D on childhood and teenage overweight/obesity was examined in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The bias risk of the included studies was evaluated using the Cochrane bias risk assessment method, and subgroup analysis based on various administration doses was carried out. R 4.2.1 was used to perform all data analysis.

The key findings of this study were:

1. After retrieving 1502 publications, 10 studies that qualified for inclusion were made up of 595 participants in total.

2. Meta-analysis revealed no differences between the vitamin-D (Vit-D) group and the placebo group in terms of LDL, TC, BMI, TG, Ca, ALP, and PTH; however, the Vit-D group had better HOMA-IR.

3. The rise in 25-(OH)-D was not significantly different between subgroups, according to subgroup analysis (p = 0.39), although the serum 25-(OH)-D level rose in response to various Vit-D dosages.

4. A high daily dosage of vitamin D ( 4000 IU/d) may lower CRP and raise HDL levels.

In conclusion, supplementing with vitamin D wouldn't help OW/OB children and adolescents' BMI, LDL, TG, PTH, TC, Ca, and ALP levels. A high dose of vitamin D supplementation (above 4000 IU/d) might improve insulin resistance and lower a number of cardiometabolic risk markers. More large-scale, high-quality RCTs are required to produce more reliable data.

Reference:

Gou, H., Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Peng, C., He, W., & Sun, X. (2022). Efficacy of vitamin D supplementation on child and adolescent overweight/obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In European Journal of Pediatrics. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-022-04673-8