Besides keeping an eye on your vitamin D levels, you might want to check Junior’s, too—especially if your kid is overweight. According to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, overweight children are more likely to be vitamin D-deficient, and kids with the lowest vitamin D levels have the highest risk of developing the initial stages of type 2 diabetes.
Researchers ran tests on 411 obese kids ages 6 to 11 and 89 non-obese children. They took the kids’ height and weight, asked questions about their diet, and did simple blood tests to check vitamin D levels and assess some early signs of type 2 diabetes.
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The obese kids were three times more likely to be vitamin D deficient, and those who were low in vitamin D were more likely to be insulin resistant—a glaring early warning for type 2 diabetes. The findings held true even when the researchers accounted for the kids’ weights, meaning that obesity itself wasn’t the only risk factor for insulin resistance.
But a few other factors might be at play, says study leader Micah Olson, M.D., of Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Since we get a lot of our vitamin D from the sun, it’s possible these kids might be hiding in the dark like little vampires, whiling away their hours with sedentary activities like watching TV and playing video games. And since vitamin D is fat soluble, it’s also possible that their entire bodies have lots of vitamin D, but it’s sequestered away in their fat tissue instead of in the blood, where the body can use it.
How do you know if your child is at risk for type-2 diabetes? The biggest risk factor is still BMI, Olson says. If your kid is in the 95th BMI percentile—and especially if there’s a family history of type-2 diabetes—get him or her checked for diabetes at the pediatrician’s office. Click here for a children’s BMI calculator.