Vitamin D and Obesity

Abstract

Vitamin D affects not only musculoskeletal health but also a range of nonskeletal diseases such as cancer, obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D deficiency and obesity have been recognized as pandemic diseases with much health consequences. The ‘cause-effect’ relationship of vitamin D to obesity has been the area of much recent activity. There is consistent association in the published literature between higher body mass index (BMI) and lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Although recent studies suggest that low serum vitamin D is the consequence of obesity, the results from randomized controlled trials are still scarce and inconclusive to establish the relationship between vitamin D and obesity. Moreover, the role of vitamin D in the pathophysiology of obesity is still debatable and there is little evidence for a direct effect of vitamin D supplementation on body weight. Therefore, randomized large-scale double-blind controlled trials are needed in the future to clearly establish the effects of vitamin D in obesity.