Is Diabetes Really Prevented by Sunbathing?

Medical Video: Diabetes and Heat - Mayo Clinic

Diabetes is a chronic disease caused by the absence of insulin in the body to regulate blood sugar (type 1 diabetes) or caused by insulin which cannot work properly due to various factors, one of which is diet and lifestyle (type 2 diabetes). According to WHO data, it is known that in 2014 there were 422 million people who had diabetes and sufferers continued to increase over time. It is estimated that in 2012 around 1.5 million people died from diabetes and 2.2 million died from complications caused by diabetes.

The most common case of diabetes is type 2 diabetes and many factors that cause this disease to occur. According to research, a low amount of vitamin D can cause a person to experience type 2 diabetes.

Vitamin D prevents type 2 diabetes

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin which is often referred to as sun vitamin, because most vitamin D is obtained when the body is exposed to sunlight. The more often we are exposed to sunlight at certain times, the more vitamin D can be produced by the body.

Recently there have been studies that state that vitamin D can prevent diabetes from occurring. This arises because the results of the study found that people who have type 2 diabetes have low levels of vitamin D in the blood. The study also suggested that people who have low levels of vitamin D in their bodies have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while those who are newly diagnosed with type two diabetes have an average low vitamin D in their body.

A study conducted in 2012 found that in groups with more than 25 nanograms per ml of vitamin D, there was a lower chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Similar to the results of the study, comparing 18 studies that examined vitamin D levels in type 2 diabetics, experts concluded that people who did not have sufficient amounts of vitamin D in their bodies were at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Each increase of 4 nanograms / ml of vitamin D is estimated to reduce a 4% chance of someone suffering from type 2 diabetes in the future.

How does vitamin D prevent diabetes?

Vitamin D helps the pancreatic beta cells work

Experiments of vitamin D and calcium supplements have been conducted in 2000 adults who have a risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Supplements given are as much as 200 IU of vitamin D or 400 mg of calcium per day in the group. At the end of the experiment, it was found that vitamin D supplements were thought to help the function of pancreatic B cells, which are parts of the body that produce the hormone insulin. Some type 2 diabetics have pancreatic beta cells that cannot produce enough insulin to change blood sugar levels, so that blood sugar stays high and causes hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia that occurs continuously causes diabetes to occur.

Low vitamin D decreases insulin sensitivity

In normal and healthy people, sugar or glucose that enters the blood will be directly distributed to cells that need energy for metabolism. The duty to change the sugar in the blood is the insulin hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreas. If the insulin hormone is very sensitive, the pancreatic beta cells do not need to produce large amounts of insulin. But that does not occur in people with type 2 diabetes. Insulin, which should be sensitive to glucose levels in the blood, does not respond and is resistant. Thus, the amount of glucose in the blood increases and hyperglycemia occurs. The incidence of recurrent hyperglycemia results in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, people with type 2 diabetes need more insulin by injecting insulin into the blood vessels.

Meanwhile, in a recent study, it was found that vitamin D plays an important role in increasing insulin sensitivity and increasing insulin production in the body. Other studies also state that low amounts of vitamin D in the body can reduce insulin sensitivity.

Helps absorption of calcium in the body

In addition, vitamin D also helps calcium absorption and keeps the amount of calcium in the body. Calcium has an important role in controlling the hormone insulin, so that when the calcium level in the body decreases or low, this will have a negative effect on pancreatic beta cells. Disorders of the pancreatic beta cells will cause a decrease in the amount of insulin and reduce insulin sensitivity.