From Your Health Journal…..”First, I wanted to recommend a new web site I found called MedScape Today News. Please visit their site (link below) for some great, educational articles. The article reviewed today is from their site about obesity in children and deficiency in Vitamin D. Most kids do get enough vitamin D from their diet and even from getting enough sunlight. But, a recent study states that obese or overweight children may be deficient in Vitamin D. The report also stated the national prevalence of and risk factors associated with vitamin D deficiency in overweight and obese children are unknown. The bottom line, these children will need support maintaining a healthy body weight to reduce risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and other health related problems. The report will need further attention, but reducing technology time, and ingesting proper amounts of low-fat milk each day is important for these children. I highly recommend your reading this article, so please visit the Medscape Today News for the full article. Happy holidays.

From the article…..

Vitamin D deficiency is common in overweight and obese children, especially in severely obese and minority children, according to a new report by Christy Boling Turer, MD, MHS, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues. The report was published online December 24 in Pediatrics.

“This is the first study, to our knowledge, to provide nationally representative estimates of the [body mass index (BMI)]-percentile category-specific prevalence of and risk factors associated with vitamin D deficiency in 6 to 18-year-old US children,” Dr. Turer and colleagues conclude.

According to the researchers, although excess body weight is known to be linked to vitamin D deficiency, “the national prevalence of and risk factors associated with vitamin D deficiency in overweight and obese children are unknown.”

The current study determined the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin-D levels lower than 20 ng/mL) in a sample of 6- to 18-year-old children (n = 12,292) enrolled in the 2003 to 2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The height and body weight of the children were measured, and the participants were classified as being healthy weight, overweight, obese, or severely obese. Vitamin D levels were also determined.

Vitamin D deficiency increased with the degree of obesity.

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