June 24, 2013. On June 18, 2013 at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Candace Percival, MD of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda presented the findings of a role for vitamin D deficiency in allergies or asthma occurring in overweight adolescents. "The increased risk for asthma and allergies, and for more severe cases of allergic disease, in overweight and obese adolescents has not previously been understood," stated Dr Percival, who is a pediatric endocrinology fellow at Walter Reed. "However, past research has shown that vitamin D is important for a normal immune system and that vitamin D deficiency is common in obese individuals."The investigation included 54 obese and 32 non-obese participants between the ages of 10 to 8 years. Blood samples were analyzed for 25-hydroxyvitamin D and other factors. Subgroups of participants were tested for adipokines (including leptin and adiponectin), immunoglobulin E, which is involved in allergic reactions, and cytokines (involved in immune response) that included interleukins 4, 6, 10 and 13, and interferon-gamma.
Higher body mass index (BMI) values were associated with increased plasma leptin levels and lower levels of adiponectin and vitamin D. In addition, body mass was positively correlated with higher levels of immunoglobulin E, and interleukins 6 and 13.
"This is the first study, to our knowledge, that ties together the relationship of vitamin D deficiency and increased allergy risk and severity in obese and overweight adolescents," Dr Percival announced.
"The relationship between the BMI-Z score and the adipokines and markers of allergic disease seemed to depend on the vitamin D deficiency seen in the more obese patients, leading us to conclude that the increased risk for allergy in obesity may be mediated by vitamin D to some degree," she concluded.
http://www.lef.org/whatshot/2013_06.htm#Deficient-vitamin-D-levels-linked-with-adolescent-allergy-and-asthma
