The role of vitamin D as an anti-inflammatory has taken center stage in age-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, adult onset diabetes, depression and dementia.
There was a study in Netherlands shows that the lower the vitamin D level, the greater the intolerance to glucose.
In the August 2009 issue of Pediatrics, researchers noted a significant link between vitamin D levels and blood sugars in adolescents.
Vitamin D deficiency has been long suspected of being a risk for type I diabetes in the basis of indirect evidence that countries at higher latitudes report higher incidence and prevalence rates of type I diabetes compared with countries at lower latitudes.
In animal studies by the University of California at Riverside showed that vitamin D is necessary for the pancreas to release insulin. Active vitamin D binding to its receptor located in pancreatic islet cells is thought to promote insulin secretion. Vitamin D deficiency produces insulin resistance in tissues.
Vitamin D actually directly acts on the muscle and fat cells to improve insulin action by reducing insulin resistance.
Vitamin D directly improves insulin production and its action by improving the level of calcium inside the cells.
Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to impair insulin synthesis and secretion in humans and in animal model of diabetes.
This vitamin needed to maintain adequate blood levels of insulin. Actually levels of vitamin D are associated with control of many things that cause complications in diabetes: higher levels of HDL-C, lower levels of LDL-C, and better blood pressure control.
A 2007 study published in Diabetes care concluded that vitamin D can reduce risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 40 percent.
Vitamin D would appear to have a potential role in the prevention of diabetes and the metabolic syndrome.
Vitamin D and diabetes
