More than two in five U.S. adults have prediabetes, a condition marked by higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that often leads to type 2 diabetes. A new study finds that vitamin D may help delay or prevent that progression, but only in people with certain genetic variations.
The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, found prediabetic adults with certain variations in the vitamin D receptor gene had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes when taking a high daily dose of vitamin D.
The findings may someday help shape more personalized medical care, potentially delaying or preventing the onset of diabetes for the majority of the 115 million Americans living with prediabetes.
The researchers analyzed data from the D2d study, a large, multi-site clinical trial that tested the effect of 4,000 units of vitamin D per day versus placebo in more than 2,000 U.S. adults with prediabetes to see if a daily high dose of vitamin D would lower the chance of these particularly high-risk individuals developing diabetes.
The original trial did not find a significant reduction in diabetes risk across all participants.
