Sunday, March 8, 2015

Vitamin D vs. Diabetes

Yesterday's post, Vitamin D Versus Disease, told how I discovered the positive effects Vitamin D seemed to have on my immune system. I just hardly ever get sick these days. But there is a new study out suggesting that Vitamin D deficiency may increase your risk of developing type II diabetes, and that this effect was present even in non-obese people. You can read about these findings here.

Obesity is often blamed for causing type II diabetes, although from what I've read it's not clear whether obesity is the cause, or just one of the symptoms of this disease. However, the inverse correlation between blood Vitamin D levels and type II diabetes incidence was studied in both obese and non-obese individuals and found to be present in both groups. This particular study indicates that the association between blood Vitamin D levels and diabetes is actually stronger than that between obesity and diabetes.

Type II diabetes has become a world-wide epidemic, and because it becomes more common with age, it is of particular concerns to us seniors. The effects of diabetes on the body can be devastating: heart and circulatory system disease, kidney disease, blindness, even Alzheimer's disease are all named as effects of diabetes. If something as simple as adding a Vitamin D3 supplement to my diet can help stave off some of these diseases, it would seem to be worth a few dollars a month.

This is an interesting new study, but it's far from the first time I've read about positive effects of Vitamin D supplementation on endocrine function, diabetes, and weight loss. As discussed below, Vitamin D is cheap and there is never going to be a lot of profit from it. It's too bad that in our world, the bulk of research dollars seem to go to studying very expensive pharmaceuticals, so many of which have horrendous side effects, and very little money goes to research of more natural, less harmful, cures.

At any rate, Vitamin D3 supplements are really cheap. The Twinlab Vitamin D dots pictured here can be purchased in a package of 100 from Netrition.com for $4.99. Other brands are even cheaper. I used to pick up a bottle of generic gelcaps at K-Mart for a few dollars. You shouldn't need to pay more than a couple dollars for a month's worth.

As a side note, I've been buying supplements from Netrition for years now, and have found their selection and prices good, and their shipping reasonable ($4.99) and reliable. I'm not getting anything from them from this mention, but as a reader I always like to know which online stores bloggers have had a good experience with. 

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