Vitamin C may play protective role in metabolic disorders among overweight patients

Vitamin C appears to protect against metabolic disorders due to its close association with glucose-lipid metabolism in overweight and obese patients who are undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), according to a study. Moreover, LSG does not seem to worsen the vitamin C status or deficiency.

The study authors recruited 253 overweight or obese individuals, including 61 with LSG, and divided them into group A (vitamin C <34 μg/ml) and group B (vitamin C ≥34 μg/ml). They compared glucose-lipid metabolic parameters and measured vitamin C status before and 6 and 12 months after LSG.

Participants in group A had higher body weight, body mass index (BMI), neck circumference (NC), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio, heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), 2-hour postprandial glucose (2h-BG), fasting insulin (FINS), 2-hour postprandial insulin (2h-INS), glycosylated haemoglobin (HBG), homeostasis model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), total cholesterol (TCH), triglyceride (TG), and free fatty acid (FFA) than those in group B.

On the other hand, high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) was lower in group A than in group B (p<0.05).

Vitamin C was negatively associated with body weight, BMI, NC, WC and HC, HR, SBP, DBP, and 2h-BG, FINS, 2h-INS, HGB, HOMA-IR, TG, and FFA, and was positively associated with HDL-C (p<0.05).

Patients with obesity or hypertriglyceridaemia or low HDL-C had lower vitamin C than the corresponding group (p<0.05). In logistic regression analysis, vitamin C was independently predictive of the risk for hypertriglyceridaemia, obesity, and low HDL-C.

Finally, vitamin C concentrations were slightly increased at 6 months following LSG and unchanged at 12 months after LSG.