According to the study conducted on 290 men and 125 women from Veterans Health Service Medical Centre some of who had sarcopenia, it was noticed that people with this particular vitamin deficiency had higher BMI as compared to those who did not have it.
How Vitamin D deficiency is dependant on one’s BMI
As mentioned already, according to a new study conducted among controlled Korean populations, it was found that there exists a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and BMI. Besides this, it has also been found that there is a relationship between this nutrient deficiency, average blood glucose, and TNF-α levels.
In the male population, it was noticed that people who had such type of deficiency also had high levels of fat mass and glycated haemoglobin (an indicator of blood glucose) coupled with low muscle strength and even lower physical performance capabilities.
Among women, it was observed that vitamin D deficiencies corresponded to higher levels of fat percentage in their bodies as well as high levels of glycated haemoglobin, TNF-α and creatinine.
This is not the first time such a study has been conducted. In 2021, a similar study was done by the International Journal of Medical Research and Review to find out the relationship between vitamin D levels and BMI among the South Indian rural population.
The study found that higher BMI corresponds to lower levels of vitamin content in the body thereby, solidifying claims of there being a causal relationship between the two.
What causes vitamin D deficiency and how can it be treated?
Vitamin D deficiency can arise due to several reasons. It can either be caused due to the absence of the nutrient from one’s diet or due to one’s inability to absorb sufficient amounts of it from the food. It can also arise due to other reasons like lack of exposure to the sun and medicines that hamper appropriate vitamin D absorption from food and elsewhere.
The two main ways in which vitamin D deficiency can be tackled are by maintaining a vitamin D-rich diet (food items like cheese and salmon which are rich sources of the nutrient) and by taking supplements that are rich in the vitamin component.
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