Vitamin D supplements are commonly used to protect against bone loss and fractures. But new research provides insight into the possibility of using it for other benefits, specifically in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
Vitamin D could prevent diabetes PHOTO Shutterstock
Researchers conducted three clinical trials in which they used vitamin D to reduce the progression of prediabetes to type 2 diabetes. Over three years, just under 23 percent of study patients who used vitamin D developed diabetes, compared to 25 % of those given placebo pills. On average, the study found that the supplements reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 15%. Although the result seems modest, given that there are millions of people with prediabetes, it is expected that vitamin D could delay the development of type 2 diabetes. type 2 in at least 10 million of them, which is a considerable number.
„It is quite clear that vitamin D has a moderate effect on reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes if you are at high risksaid lead researcher Dr. Anastassios Pittas of Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
It is not clear what the optimal dose of vitamin D is
The findings don’t apply to people at average risk of the disease, he pointed out, and it’s still unclear what the optimal dose of vitamin D is for people with prediabetes.
In addition, Pittas said, no supplement could replace lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and regular exercise. “We don’t want the message to be: take a pill and you won’t have to do anything to change your diet or exercise.”Pittas also said.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body’s cells stop responding properly to the hormone insulin, which helps transport sugars from food into cells to be used as fuel for energy. As a result, blood sugar levels remain chronically high, which over time can damage blood vessels and lead to heart, kidney, and eye disease, among other complications.
Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood sugar levels are abnormally high, but not yet high enough to diagnose type 2 diabetes. In the United States alone, about 96 million adults have prediabetes, according to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disease control and prevention. Studies show that prediabetes is reversible through lifestyle changes.
Exposure to light may play a role
The vitamin D study started from the observation that the prevalence of diabetes is usually higher in places farther from the equator. This, Pittas said, suggested that exposure to sunlight — which stimulates the body to naturally produce vitamin D — might play a role in diabetes risk.
Later studies found a link between the level of vitamin D in the blood and the risk of type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, laboratory research pointed to some potential reasons: vitamin D can, for example, restore normal insulin production in animals.
So far there have been three clinical trials that have directly tested whether vitamin D supplements can reduce the chance of prediabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes. Each found that participants given vitamin D had a reduced risk of somewhat lower than those who received a placebo. But the difference was not statistically significant, meaning the supplement could not be declared effective.
So Pittas and his colleagues conducted a “meta-analysis” that pooled data from all three studies. The idea is that with a larger number of patients, it will be easier to detect a moderate effect of vitamin D.
Millions of people have prediabetes
The analysis, published online Feb. 6 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, included just over 4,000 adults with prediabetes. Half of them were randomly assigned to take vitamin D. In two studies, participants took vitamin D3 in doses of 4,000 IU per day or 20,000 IU per week. The third study used eldecalcitol, a vitamin D “analogue” prescribed for osteoporosis.
Over three years, just under 23 percent of supplement users developed type 2 diabetes, compared to 25 percent of placebo users.
That’s a modest difference, but the researchers pointed to the big picture: There are 374 million people in the world with prediabetes, and these results suggest that vitamin D may at least delay diabetes in 10 million of them.
„I would say that this is quite significant”, a declarat Dr. Isaac Dapkins, medic-șef
al NYU Langone’s Family Health Centers, din New York City, scrie US News.
Dapkins, who was not involved in the study, said it encourages him to measure blood vitamin D levels in his patients with prediabetes. There were indications that supplementation was more effective for participants who started out with vitamin D deficiency (below 12 ng/mL).
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