The easiest way there is to prevent diabetes
Farxiga, Invokana, Trulicity, Jardiance, and Xigdui seem like words from some foreign language – unless, of course, you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes.
Then, the names of those type 2 meds roll right off your tongue!
But there’s a household name in the world of vitamins, one that can keep you from having to take a crash course in learning about all of those drugs with unpronounceable labels.
It’s none other than good old vitamin D!
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about how this sunshine vitamin can protect your bones, and as an eAlert reader, you know that it can also guard your health from head to toe.
Now comes confirmation of another way vitamin D can keep you healthy, and it’s by helping to prevent one of the most common and damaging conditions out there – a disease that has hit over 30 million Americans.
And even if you think you’ve heard everything there is to know about the benefits of vitamin D, this is something that’s just too important to miss.
The “Sunshine Superman” to the rescue
It seems as if everyone is being diagnosed with diabetes… or told that it’s right around the corner.
But there is something you can do to fight back.
A new study by researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, along with those at Seoul National University in South Korea, has found that keeping your vitamin D levels up may be the simplest way to dodge this devastating disease.
The group studied 903 healthy seniors whose blood sugar readings were considered perfect at the start, monitoring both their glucose and vitamin D levels for the next decade. During that time, 47 of the volunteers developed type 2, and a larger group of over 300 were on the verge of being diagnosed.
And the difference between the type 2 “haves” and “have-nots” appeared to be directly associated with blood levels of this sunshine vitamin.
When those levels were above 30 ng/mL (the hormone is measured in nanograms per milliliter), their diabetes risk was shaved by over 60 percent. And even better, the subjects who had D amounts over 50 ng/mL were 80 percent less likely to develop type 2!
Of course, you know that vitamin D supplements are inexpensive and easy to obtain, as is sunshine (for some of the year, anyway!), which your body converts to D when it hits your skin. But here’s where it gets tricky – and why you might very well be shortchanging yourself.
The “official” recommendations for what is considered a sufficient amount of vitamin D in your blood have been flipped more times than the pancakes at IHOP!
Back in 2010, for example, the Institute of Medicine decided that a reading of 20 ng/mL was just fine. Then, a year later the Endocrine Society chimed in, saying that it should be 30 ng/mL at minimum.
Now, we’ve got a bunch of docs trying to make a case in the New England Journal of Medicine for lowering the acceptable minimum down to the basement – as low as 12.5 ng/mL!
Really, no one should be on the fence anymore when it comes to making sure their vitamin D levels are high enough. And as to how much you should be aiming for, HSI panel member Dr. Allan Spreen advises that your blood levels should optimally be between 50 and 70 ng/mL.
And, he says, you can take up to 5,000 IU of D3 daily, especially during the winter months.
You can also get D from healthy dietary sources, including egg yolks and fatty fish such as tuna and wild-caught salmon.
And now that summer is fast approaching, the very best way to keep up with your D is to go out in the sun without sunscreen for around 10 minutes a day.
“Vitamin D deficiency linked to greater risk of diabetes” University of California, April 19, 2018, ScienceDaily, sciencedaily.com
