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In the case of pre-diabetes, an additional supply of vitamin D would reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 15%. A prevention strategy to be evaluated in relation to those already known related to lifestyle.
A fat-soluble vitamin, vitamin D is produced by the body when the sun’s ultraviolet rays hit the skin. It can also be taken as a dietary supplement, as it is possible to be deficient. Vitamin D is important because of its functions in insulin secretion and in glucose metabolism in general. Several studies have found an association between low blood vitamin D levels and an elevated risk of developing diabetes, researchers at Tufts Medical Center conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of three clinical trials.
Vitamin D deficiency and diabetes linked?
The authors of this work, American researchers at Tufts Medical Center in the State of Massachusetts therefore compared the effects of vitamin D supplements on the risk of diabetes. To do this, the scientists looked for studies that included adults who took 4,000 IU of vitamin D supplements with a three-year follow-up. They were able to compare 2,097 participants who took vitamin D supplements and 2,093 who received a placebo.
A reduction in the onset of diabetes by 15%
Result: Over a three-year follow-up period, new-onset diabetes occurred in 22.7% of adults (475 volunteers) who received vitamin D and 25% (524 volunteers) of those who received a placebo. The authors therefore deduce that this is a reduction in the appearance of the disease by 15%.
Taking into account all diabetics worldwide – 374 million adults – they estimate that supplementing these people with vitamin D could reverse diabetes for 10 million of them.
Other prevention strategies are more effective
However, the researchers qualify these results by pointing out that a 15% reduction remains inferior to other type 2 prevention strategies, such as intensive lifestyle modifications, which can reduce the risk of diabetes by 58% or taking metformin can reduce it by 31%.
“There are important differences between supplementation and therapy. Vitamin D supplementation of 10-20 mcg (400-800 IU) per day can be safely applied at the population level to prevent skeletal diseases and possibly not skeletal” say Dr. Malachi McKenna of St. Vincents University Hospital in Ireland and Mary AT Flynn, Ph.D., of Brown University in Rhode Island in an editorial accompanying the study. “Very high dose vitamin D therapy could prevent type 2 diabetes in some patients, but may also cause harm“.