Type 2 Diabetes - Vitamin D And The Metabolic Syndrome

 By Beverleigh H Piepers 

Photo: assets.nydailynews.com

Vitamin D deficiency has been demonstrated in people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. In December 2011, the journal Clinical Investigative Medicine reported on a study of the metabolic syndrome and vitamin D in Canadians.
A total of 1818 volunteers from the Canadian Health Measures Survey from 2007 to 2009 were included in the study. It was found that 8.9 per cent of these volunteers had the metabolic syndrome. The ones with the highest levels of vitamin D had half the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, as those with the lowest levels.
Insulin resistance was also correlated with low vitamin D levels. The researchers concluded low vitamin D levels were correlated with metabolic syndrome and linked to increased levels of insulin resistance.
Your doctor can order a test to check your vitamin D level. The optimal range in the body today is 60 to 90 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) or as expressed by some labs, 25 to 200 nmol/L (nanomoles per liter). In fact, vitamin D may be all some people with mild Type 2 diabetes need to take.
Vitamin D is also important for bone growth and repair because it aids in the use of calcium. Rickets is a disease seldom seen today in developed countries, but it was once caused by severe vitamin D deficiency. It has been suggested that Dickens' tiny Tim might have suffered vitamin D deficiency.
Today vitamin D is necessary for growth in children and for preventing osteoporosis in adults. Low levels of vitamin D have also been associated with certain types of:

• cancer,
• brain impairment in older adults,
• increased risk of heart disease,
• asthma in children,
• high blood pressure, and
• multiple sclerosis.

Bone pain and muscle weakness can be indications of vitamin D deficiency.
One of the ways people get vitamin D is by allowing skin to manufacture it when it is exposed to sunlight. Getting enough vitamin D can be a problem for people who live in northerly countries such as Canada, because not enough sunlight reaches land less than 35 degrees from the North Pole. The same goes for those living less than 35 degrees from the South Pole.
Lack of sun exposure due to:

• being homebound,
• working during daylight hours,
• wearing clothes that cover all the body's skin, or
• having extremely dark skin that blocks the sun's rays

can also cause vitamin D deficiency.
Fortunately, vitamin D is also available in some foods and supplements. Osteoporosis Canada recommends daily supplements of:

• 400 to 1000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D for Canadians under 50 years of age without osteoporosis, and
• 800 to 2000 IU for those over 50.

Vegan diets are the best kind for avoiding and treating Type 2 diabetes, and food sources of vitamin D should fit into a vegan dietary plan. Soymilk, rice milk, and orange juice are often fortified with vitamin D. One cup of Silk Light soy milk contains about 30 per cent of the recommended daily vitamin D allowance. Check the labels for the vitamin D content of other brands of soymilk, rice milk and orange juice.
Eat healthy, and don't forget the vitamin D.

To discover answers to questions you may be asking yourself about Type 2 Diabetes, click on this link... Natural Diabetes Treatments
Clicking on this link will help you to learn more about Type 2 Diabetes Solutions... Beverleigh Piepers RN... the Diabetes Detective.
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