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Dr. Holick explains how obesity and vitamin D are associated.
Dr. Holick:
Well, vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, and so it loves to stay in your body fat. So we showed that obese people, if they take vitamin D orally or exposed to sunlight, they only raise their blood level 50% compared to a normal weighted individual, and the reason is that the vitamin D gets basically sequestered and trapped within the body fat and it can’t get back out. So obese people are more prone to vitamin D deficiency and often need two to three times more vitamin D to satisfy their body’s requirement.
The reason it’s important for obese people is that they often complain of aches and pains in their bones and muscles, and they feel fatigued. Vitamin D deficiency will cause all of those symptoms, and we have many patients, have dramatic response in improvement of feeling of well-being, better muscle function, and less aches and pains in their bones and muscles when they correct their D deficiency.
About Dr. Holick, Ph.D., M.D.:
Michael Holick, Ph.D., M.D., is the Professor of Medicine of Physiology and Biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and performed his residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Holick specializes in vitamin D, calcium, bone metabolism, photobiology of vitamin, and osteoporosis. Dr. Holick is also the recipient of the American Skin Associations Psoriasis Research Achievement Award, the American College of Nutrition Award, the Robert H. Herman Memorial Award in Clinical Nutrition from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and more.
Visit Dr. Holick at his website