Vitamin D shows promise for children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (“Significantly blunted” worsening with Vitamin D2)

Medical Xpress / Journal of the Endocrine Society ^ | Jan. 6, 2022 | Sandra Gray / Benjamin Udoka Nwosu et al

[ConservativeMind]

Adding a safe, inexpensive and easy to administer form of vitamin D to treatment for children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes shows promise to improve measures of disease progression. Results of a randomized clinical trial comparing ergocalciferol supplementation to placebo, conducted by Benjamin Udoka Nwosu, MD.

"There are new findings of clinical importance in this study," said Dr. Nwosu. "Ergocalciferol protected beta-cell mass and was useful for maintaining improved glycemic control during the honeymoon phase."

Type 1 diabetes occurs when insulin-producing beta cells cease to function over time. During partial clinical remission, known as the "honeymoon phase" that may follow initiation of insulin therapy, surviving beta cells continue to produce some insulin—the longer the better. Patients who do not experience partial clinical remission require higher doses of insulin and are more likely to suffer from serious diabetes-related complications later in life.

In the 12-month, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 18 patients aged 10 to 21, who were three months or less from diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, received 50,000 IU of ergocalciferol per week for two months, and then once every two weeks for 10 months, while the 18 members of the control group received a placebo. All participants were on a tightly controlled insulin treatment plan.

Trends for rising average blood glucose levels over several months (HbA1c) and insulin dose-adjusted blood glucose levels (IDAA1c), a measure of beta cell function, were significantly blunted in the ergocalciferol group. These results suggest that adding vitamin D to insulin therapy may further extend the length of partial clinical remission.

"Our study is the first to demonstrate significant functional and dynamic differences between ergocalciferol and placebo," said Nwosu. "It is also the longest of such studies in an exclusive pediatric type 1 diabetes population using a standardized insulin regimen and high dose ergocalciferol."

[ConservativeMind]

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, so it makes sense Vitamin D, in its forms, would blunt an overactive immune system’s behavior.

It really appears to be a cheap option to keep the beta cells alive in a healthy fashion.

[ConservativeMind]

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[struggle]

I just want to figure out how that long distance runner got his pancreas working again.

[Red Badger]

But if they stop people from getting Type 1 Diabetes how will the big drug companies make any money?....................

[Wuli]

I know there is some connection between skin tone and Vitamin D manufacture by the body, with lighter skinned folks known to have less frequent low vitamin D levels in their system than darker skinned persons, on average (vitamin D is made in humans by an interaction of the skin with sunlight).

And i thought type 1 diabetes was more prevalent among blacks than among whites.

And here is what I found. Whites are about 57.8% of the U.S. and have about 15.4% of diagnosed type 1 diabetes cases (57.8 / 15.4 gives you about 1 in every 3.7 whites) while blacks are about 12.1% of the population and have about 4.2% of diagnosed type 1 diabetes cases (12. / 4.2 gives you 1 in about every 2.8 blacks). Which is as I believed - a slight disadvantage in darker skins, and it may be tied to vitamin D.

https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf