VITAMIN D deficiency linked to diabetes

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Vitamin linked to diabetes. Amy Corderoy. July 26, 2011

VITAMIN D deficiency is putting Australians at risk of developing diabetes, a

landmark study has shown.

The largest study of its kind found that people with higher levels of vitamin D

in their blood were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with lower

levels. It could lead to at-risk patients using vitamin D supplements along with

diet and exercise to stop the development of the potentially deadly condition.

The study's co-author, Ken Sikaris, a pathologist at Melbourne Pathology, said

the research could play a big role in slowing increasing rates of diabetes in

Australia.

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''It's hard to underestimate how important this might be,'' Dr Sikaris said.

Between a third and a fifth of the Australian population could be vitamin D

deficient, with rates highest in the southern states which received less

sunlight, he said.

The research, which tested the blood of 5200 people, found every increase of 25

nanomoles of vitamin D per litre of blood (nmol/L) equated to a 24 per cent

reduced risk of diabetes, said another co-author, Zhong Lu, a pathologist at

Monash Medical Centre and Melbourne Pathology.

People with a level of vitamin D in their blood that is less than 50 nmol/L are

deficient, although some experts believe the threshold for deficiency should be

set higher.

The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care and presented by Dr Lu at a

conference of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, retested

blood samples taken as part of the major AusDiab study of risk factors for

diabetes.

It found vitamin D deficiency was an independent risk factor, even after

adjusting for others, such as weight and physical activity.

The AusDiab study, which took place between 1999 and 2005 and is the most recent

to widely test for diabetes, showed that 7.4 per cent of Australians over 25 had

the condition.

The chair of the NorthWest Academic Centre at the University of Melbourne and

Western Health, Ebeling, said that in light of the findings he was

conducting a trial to test whether vitamin D supplements could help prevent

diabetes.

He was attempting to increase the vitamin D concentrations in the blood of a

group of 100 people with pre-diabetes to 75 nmol/L.

Professor Ebeling said such research had progressed slowly in the past because

it had not attracted funding, particularly from drug companies.

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