HHS HealthBeat (March 20, 2012)

Vitamin D and prediabetes

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.

New data show that compared to normal weight children, obese children have lower vitamin D levels. Prediabetes is a condition in which someone is thought to be at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Michele Hutchison is at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

“Those children with the lowest levels of vitamin D in their blood were also the children that seemed to be at the highest risk of having prediabetes, as measured by a marker for insulin resistance.” (14 seconds)

Teenagers had lower vitamin D levels than younger children, partly because they often skipped breakfast and drank more soda.

The study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Nicholas Garlow.

Last revised: March 20, 2012