“So far two articles have been published [on the research] whose results point to low levels of vitamin D in this population, with the conclusion that the young people with the highest levels of this micronutrient in their blood have lower levels of cholesterol,” the researchers at the university’s Institute of Public Health (ISPUP) and Faculty of Medicine (FMUP) said.

“In adolescence, vitamin D performs a central role in the metabolism of calcium and in bone growth, functions that are essential for adolescents,” they said in a statement. “This phase is also particularly important, because it is a sensitive period for the development of a cardiovascular risk profile, whose manifestations are detected later in life.”

The studies assessed teenagers in the EPITeen cohort, as part of a longitudinal study that began in 2003 with the objective of understanding how habits and behaviours acquired in adolescence are reflected in adult health.

The young people were assessed at age 13, in public and private schools in Porto, with an analysis of ingested vitamin D (that is, taken in food), through a questionnaire on diet, and serum vitamin D (obtained via diet and synthesis in the skin), by quantifying levels of 25-hidroxivitamina D in blood samples.

The researchers found that a growing number of studies have suggested a relationship between a lack of vitamin D in the organism and the development of cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer and various auto-immune disorders.