web analytics

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Diabetes

| February 25, 2015 Comment

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Diabetes – While it’s known that obesity can cause diabetes, the link to vitamin D deficiency has not been very clear, until now.

To determine if vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of diabetes, or if it simply causes weight gain, a team of Spanish researchers examined the vitamin D levels, metabolic health and body-mass indexes (a measure of body fat based on height and weight) of 138 adults. They categorized patients into three groups: diabetic, prediabetic or those with no glycemic disorders.

They then measured their blood levels of vitamin D and their adipose (fat) tissues’ expression of the vitamin D receptor gene. (Vitamin D activates genes throughout the body. If the gene is in the fat tissue, vitamin D affects that fat tissue.) Results showed that obese individuals with diabetes had lower levels of vitamin D than those who did not have diabetes, and that vitamin D gene expression was higher in morbidly obese individuals than in those with lower BMIs.

Diabetic participants with a healthy weight also had lower vitamin D levels than normal-weight participants without diabetes. This shows that vitamin D deficiency can increase your risk for diabetes even if you are at a healthy weight.

You may be able to reduce your risk for diabetes by consuming a healthy vitamin D-rich diet and by spending more time outdoors, says study author Manuel Macías-González of Complejo Hospitalario de Málaga (Virgen de la Victoria) and the University of Málaga.

More….

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Category: News

Leave a comment