Study suggests vitamin D supplementation may slow type 2 diabetes progression

In a recent study it has been found that Vitamin D supplementation may slow type 2 diabetes progression rate in newly diagnosed and pre-diabetes patients.

The type 2 diabetes is an increasingly prevalent disease, which puts a huge burden on patients and society and can also lead to serious health problems including nerve damage, blindness and kidney failure.

People suffering from a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes ( prediabetes) can be identified by several risk factors including obesity or a family history of the disease. Although low vitamin D levels have previously been associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, some studies have reported no improvement in metabolic function.

However, these often had a low number of participants or included individuals with normal vitamin D levels at the start who were metabolically healthy, or who had long standing type 2 diabetes. Whether vitamin D supplementation has any beneficial effect in patients with prediabetes or with newly diagnosed diabetes, especially in those who have low vitamin D levels, remains uncertain.

In this study, lead researcher along with her fellow researchers examined the effect of vitamin D supplementation on glucose metabolism in patients who are newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or identified as at high risk of developing the condition.

Markers of insulin function and glucose metabolism were measured before and after 6 months of high-dose vitamin D supplementation ( approximately 3-10 times the recommended dose).

Although only 46% of study participants were determined to have low vitamin D levels at the start of the study, supplementation with vitamin D significantly improved the action of insulin in muscle tissue of participants after 6 months.

The lead researcher said, the reason we saw improvements in glucose metabolism following vitamin D supplementation in those at high risk of diabetes, or with newly diagnosed diabetes, while other studies failed to demonstrate an effect in people with long-standing type 2 diabetes is unclear. This could be due to the fact that improvements in metabolic function are harder to detect in those with a longer-term disease or that longer treatment time is needed to see the benefits.

The lead researchers suggested that future studies should evaluate whether there are individual clinical or genetic factors that affect how different people respond to vitamin D supplementation and if the positive effect on metabolism is maintained in the longer term.

Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes are a growing public health concern and although our results are promising, further studies are required to confirm our findings, to identify whether some people may benefit more from this intervention, and to evaluate the safety of high-dose vitamin D supplementation recommendations be followed, she added.

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More than half of healthy looking people may have suffered heart attack

Researchers have found that more than half of the outwardly healthy individuals showed evidence of having suffered some injury to the muscle tissue in their hearts. New evidence of heart injury found in apparently healthy people could help pave the way for better long-term monitoring of cardiac health and personalised approaches to treatment, researchers say.

The researchers examined samples of blood taken from 19,500 outwardly healthy people in Scotland. They found that more than half of them showed evidence of having suffered some injury to the muscle tissue in their hearts.

The study  began in 2006 and collected samples from adult volunteers in good health across Scotland.

The researchers tested the samples for evidence of troponin in the volunteers' bloodstream and correlated their findings against follow-up research, conducted on average around 8 years later, to determine how their future heart health had been affected.

Troponins are proteins which help regulate the contractions of the heart muscles. When parts of the heart muscles are injured, the proteins are released into the bloodstream. Troponin rests are often used un a clinical setting to diagnose that a patient has suffered a heart attack, as this injury releases large amounts of troponin into the blood.

In examining each sample, the researchers harnessed the benefits of improved testing techniques, which are now capable of detecting smaller levels of troponin than they have been in the past.

They looked for evidence of 2 slightly different types of troponin in the samples, known as troponin I and troponin T. Combined with the results of follow-up research, they're able to show that people with elevated levels of troponin I were more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and heart attacks in the future, even after considering their other risk factors for these conditions. Both types of troponin were associated with risk of death and heart failure.

The Dr. said that we found more than half of people in the generally healthy group were walking around with detectable troponin levels in their bloodstream, suggesting they had already had some level of heart injury.

While it's an obvious concern that people can have suffered some heart damage without realising it, the good news is that troponin  levels  are affordable and already commonplace in clinical settings.

People over 40 already have health MOTs' which examine their blood pressure, cholesterol levels and the like. Adding a troponin test could prove to be a valuable early-warning system to identify the specific types of heart problem they might face in the future and take steps to address them early on.

We're keen to expand our research further to look at samples from UK, which also include MRI pictures of pateint's hearts and could provide more detailed evidence of the links between troponin levels and heart damage.

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Viagra may help halt heart attacks

A daily dose of anti-impotency drug Viagra which improves blood flow could provide a "safe" treatment for heart disease, a new study has claimed.

The study shows that long-term daily treatment of Viagra can provide protection for the heart at different stages of heart disease, with few side effects.

Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor (PDE5i) is the main ingredient in Viagra and other drugs commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction. The inhibitor blocks the enzyme PDE5, which prevents relaxation of smooth muscle tissue.

The presence of PDE5 in the heart has led to previous research on whether the inhibitor could treat non-urological conditions.

But despite some promising results, the studies were largely based on animals and the cardioprotective effects of PDE5i remained unclear.

Scientists from the Sapienza University of Rome carried out a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials by searching for articles published between January 2004 and May 2014 to test the effectiveness of PDE5i in providing cardiac protection, and to find out whether it was well-tolerated and safe.

They identified 24 suitable trials for analysis from four research databases.

The trials involved 1622 patients from mixed populations who were treated with PDE5i or a placebo.
For the first time, the scientists conducted a parallel analysis of the effects of the inhibitor on the size and shape of the heart and its performance.

The analysis shows that PDE5i prevented the heart increasing in size and changing shape in patients suffering from left ventricular hypertrophy, a condition which causes thickening of the muscles in the left ventricle.

The inhibitor also improved heart performance in all patients with different heart conditions, with no negative effect on the patients' blood pressure.

"We found that the main ingredient in Viagra can be used as an effective, safe treatment for several patients with heart disease. Large clinical trials are now urgently needed to build on these encouraging findings," lead author of the study, Andrea Isidori said.

The study concludes that the inhibitor could be reasonably administered to men who suffer from heart muscle thickening and early-stage heart failure.

However, since most of the studies included in the meta-analysis were on men, the researchers suggest the next step should be a larger trial on sex-specific long-term responses.

The research was published in the journal BMC Medicine.  THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.








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