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10.09.2022

The antidiabetic effect of vitamin D

Yesterday we wrote about a trial in which vitamin D supplementation improved glucose metabolism in pre-diabetics. The effect was positive, but not sky-shattering. The subjects' vitamin D levels were also pitifully low. Does vitamin D supplementation also work with a less unfavorable vitamin D level?

And the answer is...
Yes. At least, if you go by a pilot study that endocrinologists from Arak University of Medical Sciences published in Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome in 2013.

In the 2013 trial, the Iranians experimented with 100 adult type 2 diabetes patients. The patients were given oral medications for their condition, such as glibenclamide or metformin. They weren't on insulin yet.

During the 8 weeks that the study lasted, the subjects took a capsule containing 50,000 units of vitamin D3 every week.

There was no control group.

Results
The average vitamin D level rose from 43 to 60 nanograms per milliliter as a result of the supplementation. It is clear that the subjects' vitamin D status before supplementation was not in the deep red zone, as was the case in yesterday's trial.

The HOMA-IR, a marker for insulin resistance, dropped. This was also the case with the fasting glucose and insulin levels. All of these effects were statistically significant.

Using the study participants' baseline vitamin D levels, the researchers split the effect of their supplementation regimen on the HOMA-IR. Based on this data, we cobbled together the graph below.

The figure suggests that supplementation with vitamin D can bring about a small but possibly clinically relevant improvement in glucose metabolism at both relatively low and relatively high vitamin D levels.

Source:
Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2013 Feb 26;5(1):8.

More:
Glucose level out of control? Maybe a vitamin D supplement helps (9-9-2022)
Vitamin D supplement plus life style modification keeps type 2 diabetes at bay (8-3-2022)
High vitamin D levels drastically reduce the risk of diabetes type-2 (25-4-2018)

Archives:
Insulin & Glucose Metabolism
Vitamin D
Vitamins

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