June 26, 2018

New Study: Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Diabetes

Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Seoul National University suggests that individuals with a vitamin d deficiency may be at a much greater risk of developing diabetes.

The Role of Vitamin D in the Body

Vitamin D, commonly called the ‘sunshine vitamin, is an essential nutrient that plays a major role in many of the body’s functions, including in the skin, hair and bones. Vitamin D has been shown to promote calcium absorption, support healthy cell growth and healthy immune function. Sources of vitamin D include the sun, some foods like fatty-fish and cheese (though small amounts), and supplementation.

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It has been estimated that approximately 70% of North Americans have a Vitamin D deficiency. This is due to a combination of factors: low levels of sunlight for most of the year, obesity, sun avoidance, and low consumption of foods high in Vitamin D such as fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines). Inadequate Vitamin D in the body often leads to conditions such as rickets and osteomalacia, which bring on symptoms like bone and muscle pain, enlarged joints, and easily fractured bones. Given the high prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, this could be the most essential of all the conditionally essential vitamins.

Essential for bone health, recent studies have also shown low levels of vitamin D to be linked with higher rates of respiratory tract infections, auto-immune diseases and cardiovascular diseases.

The Study on Vitamin D Deficiency

The scientists studied a cohort of 903 healthy adults with a mean age of 74 and that had no indications of either pre-diabetes or diabetes during clinic visits from 1997 to 1999, and then followed the participants through 2009. Vitamin D levels in blood were measured during these visits, along with fasting plasma glucose and oral glucose tolerance.

Over time, there were 47 new cases of diabetes and 337 new cases of pre-diabetes, in which blood sugar lebels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be categorized as type 2 diabetes.

Researchers identified the minimum healthy level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (Vitamin D levels) in blood plasma to be 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). This is 10ng/ml above the recommended level, according to the Institute of Medicine.

First author, Sue K. Park, MD, from the Department of Preventative Medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea, “We found that participants with blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D that were above 30 ng/ml had one-third of the risk of diabetes and those with levels above 50 ng/ml had one-fifth of the risk of developing diabetes.”

Simply, the study authors report, that the individuals with vitamin D levels below 30 ng/ml were considered to have a vitamin D deficiency – up to five times a greater risk for developing diabetes than people with levels above 50 ng/ml.

Study co-author Cedric F. Garland, DrPH, adjunct professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, “Further research is needed on whether high 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels might prevent type 2 diabetes or the transition from pre-diabetes to diabetes,” said Garland. “But this paper and past research indicate there is a strong association.”