Vitamin D Would Be Able To Be A Powerful Factor To Prevent Type 1 Diabetes?

According to a study, published in the journal Diabetes, with lead author Dr. Jill Norris, of the Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz in Aurora, enough vitamin D might prevent and reduce the risk of islet autoimmunity in children with genetically increased risk for type 1 diabetes.

But let’s see first, in a few words, what is islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes.

The ENDIA ( Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity), gives a definition: “ Before type 1 diabetes presents with symptoms, this autoimmune response can be detected by measuring antibodies in the blood stream. These antibodies are known as islet antibodies and the condition is known as islet autoimmunity”.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease. In autoimmune diseases your own immune system mistakenly attacks to your body. Source

In T1D, the body’s immune system attacks the cells which are responsible for producing insulin in the pancreas, called beta cells. Insulin is an hormone , that is responsible for blood glucose levels. Moving sugars out of the blood and turn it into energy for body. But as beta cells are under attack and are damaged, less insulin is produced and blood glucose levels become too high.

Source
Type 1 diabetes is increasing by 3-5 percent annually across the world. Around 1,25 million in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association, have type 1 diabetes. Although T1D can occur at any age, is a disease most common in children, especially under 10 and is also slightly more common in boys.
Dr. Norris said that there was a disagreement about whether vitamin d low levels may raise the risk of islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes, for many years, among scientists.
So Dr. Norris and his colleagues decided to examine and learn more about the association between vitamin d levels in the blood and type 1 diabetes. The study is part of the Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study, which began in 2004 with 8,676 children, who had a high genetic risk for developing type 1 diabetes, from six clinical centers, three in the USA and three in Europe. Blood samples were taken from the children every three to six months from infancy.
The researchers made a comparison in the 376 children who developed islet autoimmunity with 1041 who didn’t and found that vitamin d levels, in infancy and childhood, of these children who developed islet autoimmunity were lower compared with those who did not develop it.
The results of the study show that there is correlation between high vitamin D levels in infancy and childhood with the decrease risk of islet autoimmunity.

Source
Vitamin D, also known as “sunshine vitamin”, because the major natural source of the vitamin is synthesis of cholecalciferol in the skin from cholesterol though a chemical reaction that is depended on sun exposure.
It sounds paradox, but here in Greece, although it is a sunny country, the 57,7% of our population has lack of vitamin D! Despite the name, vitamin d is considered a pro-ormone and not actually a vitamin. Only 20% of vitamin d comes from our diet and found in food such as fatty fish, beef liver, mushrooms, egg yolks, cheese.

Source
The latest years have seen high scientific interest about the benefits of vitamin D, because it has been linked with everything from cancer, phychiatric illnesses, multiple sclerosis and heart disease to diabetes.
Although Dr. Norris said that further investigation and studies are needed, believe that vitamin D could play an important role to the development, prevention and treatment of type 1 diabetes in children.
We hope that more researches in the future from the scientists will bring us one step closer to the cure of the disease..

References
sciencedaily.com
vitamincouncil.org
diabetsjournals.org
medicalnewstoday.com
endia.org.au
medicalnewstoday.com
simple.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org