Vitamin D or calciferol fulfills important functions in the body, such as protecting bone health or participating in blood clotting, and its deficiency has been associated with an increased risk of developing various diseases, from osteoporosis to dementia. This micronutrient also plays an important role in insulin secretion and glucose metabolism, and some studies have linked low levels of vitamin D in the blood with an elevated risk of developing diabetes.
Now, scientists from the Tufts Medical Center in Boston (USA) have carried out a meta-analysis of three clinical trials to conclude that administering vitamin D supplements to adults with prediabetes can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 15%; if these results are extrapolated to the more than 374 million adults with prediabetes worldwide, vitamin D supplementation could delay the onset of diabetes in more than 10 million people.
Vitamin D is fat-soluble, that is, it is soluble in fat, and it is obtained from certain foods such as dairy products (butter, cheese…), oily fish (salmon, sardines…) or eggs, among others. In addition, our body is capable of producing it when we expose the skin to the sun’s rays.
Excess vitamin D could have adverse effects
The researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of three clinical trials comparing the effects of vitamin D supplementation on diabetes risk. They administered doses of 20,000 IU –500 mcg– weekly of cholecalciferol, 4,000 IU –100 mcg– daily, and 0.75 mcg of eldecalcitol, a vitamin D analogue, or equivalent placebos to the participants over a three-year follow-up period. and found that new-onset diabetes occurred in 22.7% of adults receiving vitamin D and 25% of those receiving placebo, representing a relative risk reduction of 15%.
Vitamin D supplementation could delay the onset of diabetes in more than 10 million people worldwide
However, an excessive consumption of vitamin D can also lead to adverse effects, and the authors from University College Dublin and the Irish Food Safety Authority have warned of this in an editorial attached to the article by the authors of the work, in which they explain that professional societies that recommend vitamin D therapy have an obligation to inform physicians of the recommended vitamin D intake and safe limits, and to advise that treatment with very high doses of vitamin D could prevent type diabetes 2 in some patients, but it could also harm them.
Currently, the recommended daily amounts of vitamin D are: 400 international units (IU) for babies up to 12 months of age, 600 IU for people 1 to 70 years of age, and 800 for adults over 70 years of age.
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