Obesidade e absorção de vitamina D: como compreender essa relação?

Abstract

Obesity is considered a globally prevalent nutritional disorder, with consequent economic,
psychosocial and clinical effects. Obesity and low vitamin D levels have reached high levels around
the world, and research linking these two public health problems has increased in recent years. This
integrative literature review aims to understand the possible causes of low levels of vitamin D in
obese people. The search for scientific articles was carried out in Latin and English, with studies
published in the last 5 years. The data suggest that obesity and low vitamin D levels are more related
to the fact that vitamin D is “sequestered” by adipose tissue. Thus, the more adipocytes, the more
vitamin D stored, reducing its serum bioavailability. Another hypothesis is volumetric dilution,
where a greater amount of vitamin D must be deposited to saturate the large mass of adipose tissue
that ends up serving as a vitamin D reservoir. Weight loss could be an ally in increasing serum
vitamin D levels, but it is not yet known whether vitamin D supplementation would be able to
increase its serum levels. The results of this review indicate that nutritional management for obesity,
including improvement of hormonal parameters, response to glycemia, modulation of intestinal
microbiota, change in body composition with reduction of body fat, seems to be the main strategy
for achieving adequate levels of vitamin D.