Vitamin D deficiency common in diabetics

NEW YORK Mar 31 (Reuters) Something like three out of every five patients with type 2 diabetes show signs of vitamin D deficiency, Italian researchers report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

''Our findings,'' Giovanni Targher told Reuters Health, ''confirm some previous evidence demonstrating that vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in people with type 2 diabetes.'' Because a lack of vitamin D can negatively affect bone health and have other adverse effects, he added, ''widespread screening for vitamin D deficiency or routine vitamin D supplementation should be seriously considered'' for people with diabetes.

Targher, at Sacro Cuore Hospital, Negrar, and his colleagues studied blood levels of vitamin D in 459 individuals with type 2 diabetes and a comparison group of 459 matched non-diabetic ''controls.'' The rate of vitamin D deficiency (61 percent) was significantly higher in the diabetics than in the controls (43 percent). Diabetics with vitamin D deficiency were more likely to be women, to have poorly controlled diabetes, and to be taking insulin and cholesterol-lowering drugs.

In all, 31 percent of the diabetics had cardiovascular disease, which was strongly associated with low vitamin D levels.

More studies are ''obviously necessary to determine whether vitamin D deficiency predicts (the occurrence of) cardiovascular disease,'' Targher added, ''and to determine whether vitamin D supplementation would be protective against cardiovascular disease.'' REUTERS SK RN0513