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Vitamin D and type 2 diabetes: are we ready for a prevention trial? Scragg R. Diabetes. 2008 Oct;57(10):2565-6. PMID: 18820212 doi: 10.2337/db08-0879 Despite evidence from the current article (3) and the Finnish study (17), doubts still remain about whether low vitamin status is a cause of type 2 diabetes. Further cohort studies are required, assessing baseline vitamin D status using blood 25(OH)D to be sure that the Ely and Finnish studies are not false-positive results. Glucose clamp studies are also required because we are still not sure of the mechanism influenced by vitamin D-whether it is insulin resistance, secretion, or both. But most importantly, given that nearly three decades have passed since the first studies linking vitamin D with insulin metabolism (6,7), well-designed clinical trials of the effect of vitamin D supplementation on glycemia status and diabetes risk are urgently required to settle this question. And they need to prevent past mistakes. In particular, the vitamin D dose given in such trials needs to be high enough-above 2,000 IU per day (19)-to raise blood 25(OH)D levels above 80 nmol/l because diabetes risk is lowest at this level (9,20). If well-designed trials are carried out and confirm a protective effect from vitamin D, it could be used by the general population as a simple and cheap solution to help prevent the diabetes epidemic.

Does having enough sunlight and vitamin D give us more power to tolerate gluten and not develop damaging self-destructive auto-antibodies? It's unlikely we'll know in any good RCT (randomized controlled trials). No drug company will put up lettuce $$ to determine that good ol' cheap FREE UVB unblocked-sunshine is going to trump their $2-3/day drug (or super-sized vitamin D analogue) in a head-to-head trial. That's just absurd. And they're not stupid... because they pay staticians a lot of lettuce to figure that out for them.

"Women with fertility problems may benefit from taking vitamin D supplements, research has found. A study has found a link between low levels of Vitamin D and problems with ovulation. The research may offer a simple, cheap and safe option for women to try before resorting to drugs."

VITAMIN D LOWERS C-REACTIVE PROTEIN (CRP) Van den Berghe and colleagues at the University of Leuven in Belgium appear to be the first to show that simple, natural and cheap vitamin D (cholecalciferol) lowers CRP in critically ill patients. Even small amounts of cholecalciferol (500 IU) lowered CRP by more than 25% in a small group of critically ill patients. Another marker of inflammation (IL-6) was reduced even more. The researchers also found that critically ill patients were profoundly deficient in vitamin D.