The “sunshine vitamin” also known as Vitamin D may be hard to find during the pandemic when most people prefer to remain indoors. However, going out to get a little bit of sunshine or get a supplement may be a wiser choice.

But for some people, having fat malabsorption syndromes including those who have undergone gastric bypass surgery and those with obesity, may have a difficult time digesting or absorbing it.

Due to this reason, these people are at more risk for osteoporosis and osteomalacia (softening of the bones).

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Now, a new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, claims that 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 could be an effective treatment for people who have vitamin D deficiency and are unable to digest or absorb it through sunlight or through general supplements.

Patients with obesity are also susceptible to vitamin D deficiency as vitamin D derived from intestinal absorption and cutaneous synthesis is diluted in a larger body pool of fat.

According to the team, approximately one-third of adults are obese and require much larger doses of vitamin D to satisfy their requirements.

Healthy individuals, adults with a fat malabsorption syndrome, and obese adults were compared to evaluate if a more water-soluble form of vitamin D3 known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 was more effective than the same dose of vitamin D3 in improving their vitamin D status.

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The researchers observed that compared to healthy adults only about 36 percent of orally ingested vitamin D3 was found in the blood of patients with fat malabsorption syndromes including patients who had gastric bypass surgery.

When the same adults ingested 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 the patients with fat malabsorption syndromes were able to absorb it as well as the healthy adults thereby raising their vitamin D status to the same degree. A similar observation was made in the obese subjects compared to the healthy controls.

Vitamin D deficiency not only results in bone loss increasing risk for fracture but causes the painful bone disease osteomalacia. Patients who are vitamin D deficient with osteomalacia have unrelenting achiness in their bones and muscles.

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Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with an increased risk of many chronic illnesses including multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, neurocognitive dysfunction, and Alzheimer’s disease as well as infectious diseases including COVID.

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