Obese baboons consume 73 percent more vitamin D – keeping blood level the same – April 2016

Serum Vitamin D Concentrations in Baboons (Papio spp.) during Pregnancy and Obesity.

Comp Med. 2016;66(2):137-42.
Schlabritz-Loutsevitch NE1, Comuzzie AG2, Mahaney MM3, Hubbard GB4, Dick EJ5, Kocak M6, Gupta S7, Carrillo M8, Schenone M7, Postlethwaite A9, Slominski A10.
Author information
1Texas Tech University HSC School of Medicine at the Permian Basin, Odessa, Texas, USA. Natalia.schlabritz-lutsevich at ttuhsc.edu.
2Departments of Genetics, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
3The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, Texas, USA.
4Department of Pathology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
5Departments of Pathology, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
6Division of Biostatistics, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA.
7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
8Texas Tech University HSC School of Medicine at the Permian Basin, Odessa, Texas.
9Division of Connective Tissue Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
10Department of Dermatology and Pathology, VA Medical Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Obesity is associated with vitamin D deficiency, which can lead to serious problems during pregnancy. However, the mechanisms of the deficiency and guidelines for vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy are not established yet, and variations in environmental exposures combined with the difficulties of performing research in pregnant women are obstacles in the evaluation of vitamin D metabolism. Baboons (Papio spp.) are an excellent, well-established model for reproductive research and represent a unique opportunity to study vitamin D metabolism in a controlled environment. This study used secondary data and specimen analysis as well as a novel experimental design to evaluate pregnant and nonpregnant baboons that were or were not exposed to sunlight while they were obese and after weight reduction. Daily D3 intake was 71% higher in nonpregnant obese baboons than in their nonobese counterparts, but serum vitamin D concentrations did not differ between these populations. In addition, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations correlated negatively with the obesity index. This report is the first to show the effect of obesity and pregnancy on vitamin D concentrations in a NHP population. These data underline the importance of adequate vitamin D supplementation in obese animals.

PMID: 27053568

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Would be nice if obese humans would also increase their vitamin D levels

See also VitaminDWiki

• Overview Obesity and Vitamin D contains the following summary
• FACT: People who are obese have less vitamin D in their blood
• FACT: Obese need a higher dose of vitamin D to get to the same level of vit D
• FACT: When obese people lose weight the vitamin D level in their blood increases
• FACT: Adding Calcium, perhaps in the form of fortified milk, often reduces weight
• FACT: 168 trials for vitamin D intervention of obesity as of Dec 2021
• FACT: Less weight gain by senior women with > 30 ng of vitamin D
• FACT: Dieters lost additional 5 lbs if vitamin D supplementation got them above 32 ng - RCT
• FACT: Obese lost 3X more weight by adding $10 of Vitamin D
• FACT: Those with darker skins were more likely to be obese Sept 2014
• OBSERVATION: Low Vitamin D while pregnancy ==> more obese child and adult
• OBSERVATION: Many mammals had evolved to add fat and vitamin D in the autumn
  • and lose both in the Spring - unfortunately humans have forgotten to lose the fat in the Spring
• SPECULATION: Low vitamin D might be one of the causes of obesity – several studies
• SUGGESTION: Probably need more than 4,000 IU to lose weight if very low on vitamin D due to
    risk factors such as overweight, age, dark skin, live far from equator,shut-in, etc.
• Obesity category has 442 items

See also: Weight loss and Vitamin D - many studies   Child Obesity and Vitamin D - many studies   Obesity, Virus, and Vitamin D - many studies
Obese need more Vitamin D

• Normal weight     Obese     (50 ng = 125 nanomole)

Click here for 2014 study