NOVEMBER 3, 2009 — Low vitamin D levels are being associated with even more negative health outcomes in teenagers, according to a story in internet health advocate web site www.NaturalNews.com.

“Vitamin D levels in the general population are falling, caused in large part by sedentary lifestyles and the often overstated skin cancer scare, and our young ones are not spared from this trend, either,” NaturalNews.com reported. “And this is negatively affecting their health, as revealed in a study presented at the American Heart Association’s 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, which linked low vitamin D levels with several health conditions in teenagers.”

The story looked at a study of 3,577 teenagers who were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted from 2001 to 2004.

“These adolescents had 2.36 times the likelihood of having high blood pressure, 2.54 times the likelihood of high blood sugar, and a staggering 3.99 times the likelihood of having metabolic syndrome, which is a group of risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes; these include high blood pressure, heightened levels of triglycerides, decreased levels of “good” cholesterol, elevated levels of fasting blood glucose, as well as wider waists,” NaturalNews.com reported. “Not surprisingly, due to the fact that dark-skinned persons require more sunlight to synthesize the same amount of vitamin D as fair-skinned persons, non-Hispanic black Americans were found to have the lowest levels of vitamin D, while white Americans had the highest — almost twice that of black Americans.”

To read the entire Natural News story click here.