"Common Vitamin Could Be Key In Fight Against Type 2 Diabetes" - Dr. Max Gomez
A new study shows a common vitamin may help slow or even prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. It’s vitamin D, better known for its role in helping make strong bones. Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common type of diabetes, with more than 30 million people suffering from it in the United States alone. Sufferers make insulin but their bodies don’t respond to it and eventually their insulin producing cells become exhausted, causing their blood sugar levels to rise. That’s where the new study suggests vitamin D can help. “There is epidemiological evidence that it’s associated with deficiency or at least low levels of vitamin D in blood,” said Andrew Stewart, MD, director of the diabetes and metabolism institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “If you then supplement human beings at risk for diabetes, then it would reduce their risk of beta cell failure, beta cell inflammation, and progression to full-blown diabetes in people at risk.” Dr. Stewart said while making beta cells more resistant to inflammation might stave off diabetes, it remains to be shown in humans.
- Andrew Stewart, MD, Director of the Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, Professor, Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai