This vitamin is incredibly helpful for controlling blood sugar!

People with diabetes rely on lifelong glucose-lowering medications to maintain their condition.

However, in addition to glucose-lowering medications, there's a nutrient that can be used in combination with glucose-lowering medications to help prevent and treat diabetes: vitamin D.

◆ Vitamin D Deficiency Increases Diabetes Risk

In 2009, an epidemiological study showed that people with blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml had a one-third risk of developing diabetes, while those with levels above 50 ng/ml had a one-fifth risk.

A 25-hydroxyvitamin D level below 30 ng/ml is considered vitamin D deficient, and those with levels above 50 ng/ml have a five-fold increased risk of developing diabetes.

At the 21st World Diabetes Congress held in Dubai, UAE in 2011, many experts stated: "Vitamin D can reduce the risk of type 1 diabetes and improve blood sugar control, insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes."

◆ Why Vitamin D is Effective in Treating Diabetes

Research by scholars worldwide has shown that 60%-70% of diabetic patients have decreased vitamin D levels. Besides its role in determining calcium absorption, vitamin D has many other, lesser-known effects.

1. In addition to bone tissue, other tissue cells, such as pancreatic B cells, express vitamin D receptors. Vitamin D regulates calcium storage within and outside of pancreatic B cells, encouraging them to produce and secrete more insulin.
2. Vitamin D can inhibit pancreatic B cell apoptosis. For patients undergoing islet cell transplantation, vitamin D plays a crucial role in the survival of the transplanted islet cells.
3. Vitamin D can improve insulin sensitivity. Studies suggest that when the body's vitamin D concentration increases from 25 nmol/L to 75 nmol/L, insulin sensitivity increases by approximately 60%.
4. Diabetes is an inflammatory response in the body. Vitamin D can regulate the production of inflammatory cytokines, thereby improving insulin resistance.

◆ How to Supplement Vitamin D

1. Sun Exposure

The ultraviolet rays in sunlight can synthesize vitamin D in the skin. 30-60 minutes of sun exposure daily can effectively promote vitamin D synthesis in the skin.

However, a layer of sunscreen, an umbrella, or even a piece of clear glass can easily block UV rays.

Furthermore, young people are busy with work and cannot guarantee sufficient sun exposure each day. Even if the elderly have free time to sunbathe, their skin's ability to synthesize vitamin D is poor, only one-third that of younger people.

Furthermore, many factors, such as rainy days, smog, and environmental pollution, can affect the body's vitamin D production. Therefore, obtaining adequate vitamin D through sun exposure is extremely difficult.

2. Food Sources

Vitamin D exists in two main chemical forms: vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. Both forms of vitamin D can increase the body's total vitamin D levels. Vitamin D2 is mostly found in plant foods, while vitamin D3 is found in animal foods.

In reality, natural foods contain very little vitamin D, and dietary intake is far from sufficient.

For example, egg yolk, the most affordable "vitamin D-rich" food, contains 25 IU of vitamin D per yolk. The recommended daily intake (ADI) for vitamin D for adults aged 19-50 is 400 IU/D. This means you'd need to eat 16 egg yolks a day to get enough vitamin D, which is obviously unrealistic.

But taking it is better than not taking it.

3. Dietary supplements

This refers to vitamin D preparations.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. Available vitamin D drops are made with refined vegetable oil. Because they are coated with oil, they don't come into direct contact with stomach acid, making them more absorbable than vitamin D tablets. Therefore, if your calcium supplement contains vitamin D, first, make sure the added vitamin D meets the minimum daily requirement of 400 IU. Secondly, if the vitamin D in the tablet reaches the stomach, it will be broken down by gastric acid, destroying its activity. This significantly reduces vitamin D absorption and can lead to insufficient vitamin D intake. In short, even if you take calcium supplements with added vitamin D, you should also take vitamin D drops.

The most important members of the vitamin D family are vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. They differ in their molecular structures, and vitamin D2 cannot be synthesized in the skin.

Both share the common characteristic that they can only be converted into active vitamin D after being processed in the liver and kidneys. Vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 share similar biochemical properties and physiological functions in humans, and their clinical indications are essentially the same.

◆ Scope of Indications for Vitamin D Therapy

Vitamin D has a wide range of clinical applications. However, it is important to note that excessive vitamin D intake, whether oral or injected, can be toxic. Individual tolerance to vitamin D varies greatly, and continuous high-dose intramuscular injections can easily lead to toxicity.

The main manifestations of toxicity are elevated calcium levels and systemic ectopic calcium deposits in the kidneys, cardiovascular system, lungs, and brain. In severe cases, calcification of organs such as the kidneys and brain can occur, and death is often caused by renal failure. Therefore, caution should be exercised in patients with concurrent hypercalcemia and hyperphosphatemia.

◆ Vitamin D intake should be adequate.

Dosage: According to regulations, the recommended daily intake or optimal daily intake of vitamin D for adults aged 19-50 is 400 IU/Day. Diabetics often have osteoporosis, so the recommended intake is 800 IU/Day.

In short, vitamin D can reduce the risk of diabetes and play a positive role in diabetes treatment. It is also crucial for preventing and treating osteoporosis, a diabetic complication, and for maintaining bone health.

Diabetic patients can take a long-term vitamin D supplement of 400 IU daily, while those with osteoporosis can take 800 IU daily.

Vitamin D is affordable and manageable.

Diabetics who are deficient in vitamin D must supplement it.