eileen

AFX News Limited
Vitamin D supplements cut risk of child diabetes - study
03.12.08, 1:35 PM ET

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Taking vitamin D supplements in infancy may help a youngster ward off Type 1 diabetes, according to a review of the evidence released on Thursday in specialist journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Doctors in Britain looked at five studies in which children were monitored from infancy to early childhood to see if vitamin D supplements made a difference to the risk of becoming diabetic.
The risk of developing the disease was reduced 29 percent in children who took extra vitamin D as compared to those who had not.
Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the body does not produce enough of the hormone insulin, or cannot make proper use of the insulin it does produce, a condition called insulin resistance.
In Type 1 diabetes, so-called beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin are destroyed in early childhood by the body's immune system.
The disease is most common among people of European descent, affecting around 2 mln Europeans and North Americans, and for reasons that are unclear is becoming more widespread.
Type 2 diabetes, which is far more common, is linked mainly with an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle. It is becoming epidemic in scale in many developed or fast-developing countries.
The new study was led by Christos Zipitis of St Mary's Hospital for Women and Children in Manchester, northern England.

SOURCE LINK: http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/...fx4764135.html


and for reasons that are unclear? could it be lack of sunshine while the parent is pregnant???

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"under exposure to UV rays is as dangerous as overexposure....this is D life" eileen

eileen

Controlling childhood diabetes
Last updated: 12 March 2008

Giving children extra vitamin D may cut their risk of developing Type 1 diabetes by 29 per cent, research said today

Around 250,000 people in the UK have Type 1 diabetes, which usually develops in childhood or adolescence and is unconnected to lifestyle factors such as obesity.
Of these people, at least 20,000 are currently school age. Today, a review of five studies, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, found children given vitamin D supplements were almost a third less likely to develop the disease than those not given any.
The higher and the more regular the dose, the lower was the likelihood of developing the disease, it found. However, it was unclear from the studies how old many of the children were or what the exact dose was.
The authors said levels of vitamin D and sunlight, from which the body manufactures the vitamin, have been implicated in the risks of developing other autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Diabetes warning
They warned that the incidence of Type 1 diabetes is expected to rise worldwide, by 40% in 2010 based on 2000 figures. They added: "It is commonest in people of European descent and affects two million people in Europe and North America.
"There is a marked geographic variation in incidence, with a child in Finland being about 400 times more likely than a child in Venezuela to acquire the disease.
Dr Victoria King, research manager of the charity, Diabetes UK, said: "This study suggests that taking vitamin D in childhood has the potential to prevent the development of Type 1 diabetes.
"However, much more research, in particular controlled trials which compares the results when one group of people are given vitamin D supplements and one group is not, are needed before we can confirm a concrete association between vitamin D and Type 1 diabetes.''

SOURCE LINK: http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=28740

__________________
"under exposure to UV rays is as dangerous as overexposure....this is D life" eileen