A recent study published in 'Diabetes Care' revealed that regular supplementation of Vitamin D can reduce the risk of diabetes. The Vitamin D and Type 2 Diabetes (D2d) study examined repeated measures of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] level to test whether intratrial vitamin D exposure affects diabetes risk after trial assignment of vitamin D versus placebo to study participants.

      The D2d study compared the effect of daily supplementation with 100 μg (4,000 units) of vitamin D3 versus placebo on new-onset diabetes in adults with prediabetes. Intra-trial vitamin D exposure was calculated as the cumulative rolling mean of annual serum 25(OH)D measurements. Hazard ratios for diabetes among participants who had intratrial 25(OH)D levels of <50, 75–99, 100–124, and ≥125 nmol/L were compared with those with levels of 50–74 nmol/L.

      The study results show that there was an interaction of trial assignment with intratrial 25(OH)D level in predicting diabetes risk (interaction P = 0.018). The hazard ratio for diabetes for an increase of 25 nmol/L in intratrial 25(OH)D level was 0.75 (95% CI 0.68–0.82) among those assigned to vitamin D and 0.90 (0.80–1.02) among those assigned to placebo. Hence, daily vitamin D supplementation to maintain a serum 25(OH)D level ≥100 nmol/L is a promising approach to reducing the risk of diabetes in adults with prediabetes.

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