11 October 2013
A new review concludes that babies with sufficient vitamin D intakes seem to have a reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes later in life.
The review and meta-analysis included all available observational studies examining vitamin D intake during pregnancy or early infancy and compared the intakes to the risk of getting diabetes type 1 later in life (1). The analysis showed that babies who received vitamin D supplements in infancy were 29% less likely to develop type 1 diabetes later in life in comparison to the infants who did not get additional vitamin D. In addition, a statistically not significant 5% reduction in the offspring’s risk of getting diabetes type 1 was observed in the mothers who supplemented during pregnancy compared to those who did not.
The researchers concluded that these results supported the hypothesis that vitamin D can help to prevent type 1 diabetes. However, it is still not clear at what stage of development adequate intakes are most im-portant: during pregnancy or infancy. The fact that the analysis did not show a significant association in pregnancy may be because the mothers had not gotten enough vitamin D to see a larger effect in these studies, the scientists noted. More studies on vitamin D intake during pregnancy and the diabetes risk of offspring are needed as there are relatively few studies of this type compared to those examining supple-mentation in early infancy.
15 April 2014
The main function of vitamin E is to protect against damage of reactive oxygen species. It also has non-antioxidant functions in cell signaling, gene expression and regulation.
1 April 2016
Professor Cashman is the joint coordinator of the EU-funded ODIN project. He is lead author of a new paper that the authors say provides “firm evidence” of the significant risk that vitamin D deficiency poses to public health in the EU. They found that 13% of the cohort of 55,844 individuals drawn from across Europe had serum vitamin D levels below 30 nmol/L.
11 March 2011
An international group of leading researchers in the growing field of carotenoids met at Tufts University, Boston, USA, for an information-packed, two-day conference.
