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13.09.2022

Vitamin D supplement protects diabetic DNA from free radicals

Vitamin D supplementation has a subtle but positive effect on insulin sensitivity, we reported a few times before. However, the positive health effect of extra vitamin D for people with type 2 diabetes is more significant than you might suspect. In diabetics, vitamin D supplementation reduces damage to DNA by aggressive molecules.

Study
In 2019, diabetologists from the Medical University in Lodz, Poland, published a human study involving 92 over-45s with a poor vitamin D status. Some of the subjects had type 2 diabetes, but did not yet use insulin. Another part of the subjects did not have diabetes.

The Poles divided their subjects into 2 groups. Each group contained both diabetics and non-diabetics. One group received a supplement containing 2000 IU of vitamin D3 every day for 3 months, the other did not. The control group did not receive a placebo.

Just before and just after the supplementation period, the researchers studied the blood of the test subjects.

Results
Vitamin D supplementation, of course, boosted vitamin D levels - to a range most doctors would classify as 'acceptable'. This happened in subjects with diabetes as well as in healthy subjects.

Vitamin D supplementation reduced the activity of the enzyme formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase [Fpg] in both the healthy subjects and the diabetics. Fpg repairs damaged DNA. The decrease indicates that vitamin D supplementation also reduced DNA damage to be repaired.

In test subjects with diabetes, vitamin D supplementation also reduced the activity of yet another repair enzyme, endonuclease III [Nth].

The Poles determined the activity of these enzymes in blood cells. They also tested the DNA-damaging effect of the blood as a whole with the comet assay. Vitamin D supplementation also reduced those scores in diabetics.

Click on the figure below for a larger version.

Conclusion
"The reduction of DNA damage by vitamin D suggests that this vitamin may reduce oxidative stress resulting from hyperglycemia," the researchers conclude.

"Moreover, our results suggest that patients with type-2 diabetes may benefit more from supplementation with vitamin D than the general population."

Source:
Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Jun 13;20(12):2891.

More:
Glucose level out of control? Maybe a vitamin D supplement helps 09.09.2022
The antidiabetic effect of vitamin D 10.09.2022
Vitamin D supplement plus life style modification keeps type 2 diabetes at bay 08.03.2022
High vitamin D levels drastically reduce the risk of diabetes type-2 25.04.2018

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