Any Relation?
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Introduction
Vitamin D benefits are very well known as well as its role and necessity for bone health, immunity, mood, energy, and more.
But what about its relations with the lipids level?
This is one of my concerns since I am personally affected. I take vitamin D almost regularly, in a dose of 5000 IU for most, or in combination with vitamin K in a 2000 IU for years now, but my vitamin D levels are always not so high, they are normal, but not as expected for the amount I take. At the same time, my lipids levels are always high, despite my diet, and my thyroid hormone levels. This means that even if the thyroid is functioning well and the hormones are balanced the lipids levels are still high, or even if the thyroid is hyperactive functioning. This demonstrates in my case that the metabolism function does not affect the lipids levels.
I know that my hypercholesterolemia is not genetic, I did the test and it looks like coming from food, but I do not really eat bad fats or too much sugar other than carbs, but healthy grains for the most.
For this reason, I decided to look at the data available and I found some articles that opposed to what I thought have brought up more questions to this argument.
One of the first articles that caught my attention was titled
“Effects of vitamin D supplementation on serum profile: a systematic review and meta-analysis”
A pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov article published around 2019
The object of this meta-analysis was to determine the benefits of vitamin D supplementation on serum lipid profile and cardiovascular risk.
The conclusion was that vitamin D supplementation seemed to have beneficial effects on reducing serum levels of lipids including total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides, but not HDL, suggesting therefore to be especially useful in patients with vitamin D deficiency and hypercholesterolemia.
I honestly thought that vitamin D being liposoluble was going to raise lipids levels, so as the essential fatty acids like the Omega’s 3, but they seem instead to raise HDL, the good cholesterol, and decrease triglycerides levels if still, this is the case, they are still okay.
Another article from NIH instead looked to be much more informative and analytic, too full of scientific data thus I am going to report the simple conclusion.
The article in question is an article from 2021 titled:
The conclusion of all the analytical and statistical data of research was:
“Vitamin D has lately been found to modify the mechanisms of atherosclerosis. Supplementation in deficient patients has been found to lower the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol and increase the levels of HDL cholesterol. Vitamin D deficiency increases vascular cell adhesion molecules and E-selectin, with a potential role in the formation of atheroma plaque. It also influences the vascular tone by modifying endothelial nitric oxide production.
Deficiency can lead to oxidative stress, increased inflammation, and expression of immune cells, i.e., monocytes and macrophages, which play a pivotal role in atherosclerosis of the intima. Another pathway by which vitamin D is involved in atherogenesis is through inhibition of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. Furthermore, studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency is associated with cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, STEMI, NSTEMI, unstable angina, ischemic stroke, cardiovascular death, and increased mortality, after the acute stroke.”
As we can see, more data showing the benefit of vitamin D supplementation on lowering the lipids profile levels and consequently the risk of cardiovascular problems associated, and much more especially for its contribution in lowering inflammation and boosting the immune function.
An article from Medical News Today, last reviewed in February 2021instead discusses the controversy about this fact.
The author thinks that the connection between vitamin D and cholesterol is unclear. Some research suggests that vitamin D supplements may improve cholesterol levels while others indicate that vitamin D has no effect on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
Among the consequences of vitamin D deficiency, she lists besides rickets and osteomalacia, dental problems, as periodontitis and caries, depression, and fatigue.
As risk factors instead, poor absorption from the intestinal tract, the inability of the kidneys to convert the vitamin to its active form, and low exposure to sunlight.
Another cause is considered low intake of vitamin D in the diet and as the NIH explains, it is more common in people with a milk allergy, individuals with lactose intolerance, and people eating a vegan or ovo-vegetarian diet
Other possible risk factors for a vitamin D deficiency include smoking, pollution, medications, skin type, age, pregnancy, and gender.
More recommendations from the author are that although vitamin D supplements are available without a prescription, hypercalcemia can result from excessive vitamin D intake or vitamin D toxicity. It is important to note that this condition is not a side effect of normal vitamin D intake.
In general, she recommends that a person should check with their doctor before taking vitamin D supplements.
Her conclusion is that research is inconclusive on the connection between vitamin D and cholesterol. However, because the body needs vitamin D for several functions, it is important to get regular exposure to sunlight, if possible.
People may be able to prevent vitamin D deficiency by including certain foods in their diet, including milk, cheese, oily fish, meat, eggs, and fortified foods.
Wrap-Up
We all know that regular exposure to the sun and assimilation from the diet would be the best choice to increase our vitamin D level so as for most of the vitamins and natural elements, but we also know that in some cases -as we have seen with Covid- how the vitamin D level was especially important to support the immune system as with other types of viral or microbial diseases, but we did not know maybe much of its interference with lipids levels, and these studies published on trusted government sites are the testimony of this, maybe not enough data, maybe not sufficient, hopefully, there will be more.
Thanks For Reading
Mariarosaria Malham
The Emerging Science 