Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome in Studies

HealthDay News via Yahoo! ^ | June 20, 2010 | NIH

[CutePuppy]

A pair of new studies has uncovered evidence that low levels of vitamin D could lead to poor blood sugar control among diabetics and increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome among seniors.

.....

More than 90 percent of the patients, who ranged in age from 36 to 89, had either vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, the authors found, despite the fact that they all had had routine primary care visits before their specialty visit.

Just about 6 percent of the patients were taking a vitamin D supplement at the time of their visit, the research team noted, and those who had lower vitamin D levels were also more likely to have higher average blood sugar levels.

"This finding supports an active role of vitamin D in the development of type 2 diabetes," study co-author Dr. Esther Krug, an assistant professor of medicine, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

"Since primary care providers diagnose and treat most patients with type 2 diabetes, screening and vitamin D supplementation as part of routine primary care may improve health outcomes of this highly prevalent condition," Krug added.

A second study involving nearly 1,300 white Dutch men and women over the age of 65 found almost half were vitamin D-deficient, while 37 percent had metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a grouping of health risk factors, including high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, abnormal cholesterol levels and high blood sugar.

"Because the metabolic syndrome increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, an adequate vitamin D level in the body might be important in the prevention of these diseases," .....

Regardless of gender, those with insufficient amounts of vitamin D in their blood were more likely to have the syndrome than those with sufficient amounts of vitamin D, Eekhoff and her colleagues found.

[CutePuppy]

Thanks, it’s great to know. I thought this would only apply to Type 2.

[CutePuppy]

If you are older, and taking calcium to prevent deterioration of your bones, you need it to help process the calcium, too.

Yes, a few years ago I informed relatives, who were taking calcium supplements, that they need to take Vitamin D3 to help absorb calcium or it's not going to be very effective.

[pandoraou812]

Vit D ping

[sissyjane]

I have osteoporosis, Vit D deficiency, degenerative disc disease, herniated discs, bone spurs, spinal stenosis, and have had skin cancer. I don’t think time in the sun is going to help this Irish American. My skin is very pale, my bones are bad...and I’m dong the best I can.

[MarkL]

My husband is diabetic and cannot drink milk, because the lactose is converted to glucose.

While I'm not diabetic, I am lactose intolerant. You can buy lactase supplements (drops or tablets) that will get rid of the lactose, or you can buy milk that's already lactose free. It's substantially more expensive, but on the other hand, it will last a LONG time in the fridge, since when milk goes bad, the lactose is converted by lactic acid.

Mark

[radiohead]

There are many ways to get Vit D. I’m also lactose intolerant and was never a milk drinker, but could tolerate some cheese and some ice cream, if it was the cheap kind whipped up with a lot of air and not so much cream. As a vegan now, I get my Vit D from fortified soy milk, food, and vitamins.

That said, after seeing some of the Vit D/diabetes posts and medical reporting over the past year, I started taking Vit D supplements. I was taking about 2-3000 units a day for about 6 months. Even at that, when I had my levels checked by my endo, my Vit D levels were almost nonexistent. I’m now on prescription strength Vit D taken 2x a month. I need to get my levels rechecked to see if they’ve improved, but if there is any correlation between Vit D levels and diabetes, I seem to be living proof. I also have metabolic syndrome, am beige/olive skinned and lived in cloudy Seattle for almost 5 years. I didn’t think it would be as low as it was, but I wasn’t surprised I had a low Vit D level.

Regarding another post re sedentary lifestyle - I wish people knew more about diabetes. There are very obese, inactive people who never become diabetics; there are people like me with diabetes on both sides of the family and who was probably going to get it at some point, no matter what the activity level; there are average-sized active people who get it. I agree that some of the increase in diabetes is linked to the type and amount of food people eat and their general lifestyle, but you can’t point to every Type 2 diabetic and say ‘you did this to yourself’ just as not every case of cancer is due to a lack of vegetables in the diet. Sometimes it just happens.

[japaneseghost]

I really think this is not a racist statement. How many times have you heard a racist say that black people are “inferior” because they have so many diseases, kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, etc. If these conditions are caused by a lack of Vit D3, that puts the racist factor in the garbage can.

[TigersEye]

Going to take my D now.

[Myrddin]

The lactose is converted to acid and gas by
enteric bacteria when there is no lactase to
convert the lactose to glucose. Lactose intolerance is
a common symptom of gluten intolerance. Lactase
is manufactured by the tips of the cilia in the
small colon. Gluten damages the cilia. The first
thing to go is the tips...with the loss of lactase.
Try a gluten free diet for a month. That may solve
the lactose intolerance. If drinking milk brings on
a “loopy” feeling, try goat’s milk. If that doesn’t
work, soy milk is a decent fallback.

[swatbuznik]

Okay, that does it. Less time on FR, more time outside... :)

[calex59]

One of my closest friends is skinny as a rail, has been all his life, plays more golf than Bozo and still has type 2.

[Think free or die]

"I’ve been taking vitamin D3 supplements for several years now. I was taking some earlier, but now taking more."

I've also been taking it for a few years. My family tends toward depression, and keeping up with Vitamin D helps keep it at bay during the "dark months". My Dad's longtime remedy is a nice 5-6 week visit to Florida during the depths of the Michigan winters. He's done that ever since he retired, and whether it's physiological or purely psychological, it seems to have helped him. He's always spent a lot of time outdoors hunting and fishing. He'll be 90 next month, and has lived quite a bit longer then either of his parents. Although grandmother had diabetes from middle age, Dad avoided it until fairly recently. He managed with exercise and diet until just 3-4 years ago, when he started taking medicine for it.

[jonathonandjennifer]

In general I agree with you, but I thought I'd read that in the summer, even here in Chicago, one can get the Vit D benefit from the sun. This article seems to support that idea.

Dr Holick: We did a study that showed that if you expose a person in a bathing suit to what we call 1 minimal erythemal dose, which is a light pinkness to the skin 24 hours after sun exposure, it’s equivalent to taking between 15 000 and 20 000 IU of vitamin D3. For a white adult, that would be equivalent to being exposed to sunlight in June at noon for about 10-15 minutes on a Cape Cod beach. Your body has a huge capacity to make vitamin D. What’s interesting is that the sunlight destroys any excess vitamin D that your body makes, so you could never become vitamin D intoxicated from sun exposure.

http://www.alternative-therapies.com/resources/web_pdfs/popular/0508_interview.pdf

[blam]

I take 4,000 IU of vitamin-D a day in the winter time and 2,000 IU a day in the summer time.

[upchuck]

Vit D is readily available as a supplement. Cheap, too.

I take 5000 IU of D3-5 each day.

Better safe than sorry.

[diamond6]

Vitamin D ping!

[Glenn]

I am on my second round of 50,000 units of Vitamin D, 3 times a week.

The last round was five months ago and I was on 2,000 units a day of supplemental Vitamin D after that. I travel an hour to and from work during daylight hours every week.

And I'm diabetic. Usually 6 shots a day.

The one thing I notice is that my fingernails get very brittle when I am D depleted.

Better living through modern chemistry.

[Yaelle]

How many times have you heard a racist say that black people are “inferior” because they have so many diseases, kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, etc.

Um... Never? Maybe I don't hang around enough racists to know.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Does the good doc have a side business selling Afro-specific Vitamin D supplements? (”The pale northern sun just isn’t up to the job for you folks!”)

[Pining_4_TX]

There are many questions left to be answered. Do people who are susceptible to diabetes also have difficulty in either absorbing or maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D? Does supplementing with D actually do anything to help combat diabetes? Is it even possible to raise a diabetic’s D level to the “normal” range?

Just because the 2 conditions coexist, does not mean that attempting to increase the level of vitamin D will necessarily do anything meaningful to prevent the complications of diabetes.