Approximately 98 million Americans are prediabetic, and about 34 million Americans have type 2 diabetes. In total, this is about 38% of the United States population. So, understandably, there is a large amount of research being done on how to prevent, treat, and potentially reverse type 2 diabetes. One of these many studies has discovered that vitamin D might be able to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.

Does Vitamin D Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?

A study conducted by the D2d Research Group has revealed that taking a high dose of vitamin D may help delay or prevent diabetes from progressing. The study found that prediabetic adults who have gene variations in their vitamin D receptors have a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes.

Initially, the study did not reveal a noteworthy difference in those diabetics that took vitamin D compared to those who didn’t. However, in an earlier analysis of the research, the D2d Research Group found that the certain group of the study that had higher levels of vitamin D had “progressively larger reductions in participants’ risk of developing diabetes.”

“Diabetes has so many serious complications that develop slowly over years,” said Bess Dawson-Hughes, lead author and senior scientist at Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. “If we can delay the time period that an individual will spend living with diabetes, we can stop some of those harmful side effects or lessen their severity.”

Testing Your Vitamin D Receptors

Dawson-Hughes and her team’s new analysis revealed that adults with diabetes that have the AC and CC variations of the vitamin D receptor gene who took the vitamin D doses saw a remarkable drop in the risk of developing diabetes compared to the control group. Those who had the AA variation of the vitamin D receptor did not respond to the daily vitamin D treatment.

“The findings may represent an important step toward developing a personalized approach to lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes among high-risk adults,” said Anastassios Pittas, senior author of the study, professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, and chief of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at Tufts Medical Center. “Part of what makes vitamin D appealing as a potential preventive tool is that it is inexpensive, widely available, and easy for people to take.”

Vitamin D supplements are extremely accessible and if they are confirmed as a suitable treatment for pre-diabetes it could seriously reduce many people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

“Our findings suggest we may eventually be able to identify which patients with prediabetes are most likely to benefit from additional vitamin D supplementation,” said Dawson-Hughes. “In principle, this could involve a single, relatively inexpensive genetic test.”

However, there needs to be more research done before vitamin D can be confirmed as a suitable treatment for prediabetics. On top of this, even if the treatment is confirmed it only works for some of the population so please do not immediately start taking excess amounts of vitamin D if you are prediabetic. Taking too much vitamin D can cause harm to your system. The average person needs about 600 international units (IU) daily. So, please take only the recommended dose of vitamin D and talk to your doctor about testing for the vitamin D gene mutation before making any supplemental changes to your diet.

References:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1125105

Vitamin D Supplementation and Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes | New England Journal of Medicine

National Diabetes Statistics Report | Diabetes | CDC