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Take Vitamin D - make sure your children take it

Dillinger

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,209
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Celery.
If you are a Type 1 diabetic you are most likely in that happy state because of an auto-immune response that knocked out the beta cells in your pancreas.

There is a great deal of evidence that vitamin D has an extremely important part to play in normal immune responses.

I'm a dog with a bone on this as there seems so much evidence (of varying degrees of quality) that vitamin d deficiency is a real problem especially in the Northern Hemisphere and more so if you have dark skin. So why not take the initiative and try and remove this from our list of possible health issues for us and our families?

Here is a new story from the BBC on this and sudden infant death syndrome :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16726841

As Type 1 we know that we have a propensity to immune problems - our Type 1 diabetes is an example of that, this may or may not be hereditary, vitamin D may or may not improve our odds and more importantly the odds of our children suffering a range of problems.

The question is; do you want to bet that it doesn't or do you want to spend a few pence every day betting that it does?

Here are some more links to think about.

http://www.theheart.org/article/1245657.do

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11705562

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTtmvMvgfl0

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... rient.aspx

Mercola is a bit bonkers, but there is some interesting stuff on there plus I note a statement that 60% of Type 2 diabetics are vitamin d deficient.

If you do take it take D3 not the cheap and cheerful stuff you can get in chemists.

Vitamin Dillinger
 
I believe as with all supplement if you are not deficient in a vitamin then you don't need to take a supplement and if you do then you may be at risk of other conditions.

All the more reason to eat a good balanced diet
 
Sid Bonkers said:
I believe as with all supplement if you are not deficient in a vitamin then you don't need to take a supplement and if you do then you may be at risk of other conditions.

All the more reason to eat a good balanced diet
Click to expand...

That's true of course - but vitamin D is relatively tricky to get from food - oily fish being the best bet and it strikes me that one is more likely to be deficient than not especially with our English weather.

Trouble is there is no routine testing and the consequences of being deficient seem higher than the consequences of having elevated levels; possible development of Type 1 diabetes in children for instance. In terms of people with CKD that is true as well but as I understand it only in the later/end stages which hopefully most of us will avoid.
 
[\quote="Dillinger]Trouble is there is no routine testing and the consequences of being deficient seem higher than the consequences of having elevated levels; possible development of Type 1 diabetes in children for instance. In terms of people with CKD that is true as well but as I understand it only in the later/end stages which hopefully most of us will avoid.[/quote]

If you are worried about being deficient in vit D then ask your GP for a blood test.
My GP was more than happy to have my Vit D levels checked. Result high end of normal.
Type 1 for 47 years
 
Best way to get vitamin D is to expose your skin to sunshine - exposing face & hands for about 30 mins per day every day (without getting burned, but without sunscreen) through the summer is enough, but you need longer if you have dark skin eg Asian or African origin living in UK. If you get enough sun through the summer, you'll build up enough supplies to see you through the winter, when sun angle is too low to allow your skin to convert enough precursors to vitamin D.

Plus, if your minimum 30 mins per day is combined with walking or cycling you get exercise at the same time as building up vitamin D reserves - win win 8)
 
I got a diagnosis of Vitamin D deficiency after struggling for two and a half years with extreme tiredness and depression. I had to do my own research and get tested for various things.

I worked in an office full time, 5 days a week, drove the car to work and didn't do much walking. I also had IBS-D, so any Vitamin D I was getting from food wasn't getting absorbed.

From my experience if you have an indoor job, then it is quite easy not to get enough Vitamin D. My ancestors were people who worked on farms, I'm sure I wasn't designed to stay indoors so much :lol:

By all means get tested, I am convinced Vitamin D deficiency is much more widespread than is diagnosed, I'm sure lots of people are put in the chronic fatigue/ME box when they are really are Vitamin D deficient.
 
Denise wrote:

By all means get tested, I am convinced Vitamin D deficiency is much more widespread than is diagnosed, I'm sure lots of people are put in the chronic fatigue/ME box when they are really are Vitamin D deficient.
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I agree completely. As for building up enough stores to see you through the winter - as we get older we become less efficient in manufacturing Vitamin D and so we don't build up enough levels. Google around the subject to see various research papers on the web. I take Vit D3,well over the RDA, and feel much better for it - I used to get so depressed at this time of year, long before diabetes! And as an archaeologist most of my summer were spent outdoors.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) might well be from low levels of Vit D, IMO, too.

I asked for a Vit D test but was refused because it was too expensive. And my practice is usually brilliant on testing etc.

Viv 8)
 
I live in Scotland and my GP said he wouldn't be surprised if everyone had some deficiency in vit D. There's research between lack of vit D and MS.

I take a vitamin D supplement daily because my cousin was diagnosed with deficiency and I was feeling so tired, depressed. However since I was diagnosed T1.5 and since the insulin I felt so much better generally so I haven't pushed for the test.
 
Hi

When my son, then aged 11, was diagnosed in Feb 2008 - he was found to be very deficient in Vitamin D.

He was treated with a single dose (Stoss Therapy?) involving drinking an oily liquid (eeewww!).

I am always interested in the possible link between Vitamin D deficiency and Type 1 Diabetes and feel that more will be discovered about this over time.
 
Well, it appears that my brother is Vit D deficient, but not extremely so however still outwith range enough to be classed as deficient. He was also told his sugar level was 'a tiny touch over the range' but it could be stress, but I did tell him to expect a follow up A1c and possibly fasting test in a couple of months to make sure.

He really had to demand for the vit D test, also there's two types of tests apparently and one is more accurate than the other.

I take a D3 tab everyday anyway even though I've not been tested and my brother was told to do the same he's not too chuffed with this as he doesn't think taking a vit D tablet will make a difference. I saw somewhere on the net it's far more beneficial to have it injected every few months or so, and he may push for this instead.

He is also going to book a holiday to Dubai :lol:
 
Sanober, if your brother is not keen on taking tablets, there is a Vitamin D spray called Dlux. You just spray it in your mouth and it tastes a bit lemmony and not unpleasant (probably not available on prescription though). Calci-chew D3 forte tablets are like eating chalk and gritty.

The endo who diagnosed my Vitamin D deficiency said that I could possibly have the Vitamin D injection, but the GP said no need and prescribed the Calci-chew. I take the Dlux as well.
 
Finally. I've was tested for this yesterday. Along with another B12 test. I should have the results in a few days.

Saying that with the sun being out I've also tried to get out of the office for at least 10 - 20mins each day 8)

I've been taking vit D and B12 for 3 months and I want to see if it's had an affect.

All my brother's and sisters are being tested, some have a genetic form of Anaemia and they've been told their Heamoglobin's low, also my mum who is a T2 is being tested for vit D /B12 levels. So far, my brother's been told he's deficient in vit D.
 
Dillinger said:
I'm a dog with a bone on this as there seems so much evidence (of varying degrees of quality) that vitamin d deficiency is a real problem especially in the Northern Hemisphere and more so if you have dark skin.
Click to expand...


Yes there has been a lot of media coverage of late concerning the role of Vitamin D, if you don't mind me asking Dillinger....... what dosage do you give your children?
 
noblehead said:
Yes there has been a lot of media coverage of late concerning the role of Vitamin D, if you don't mind me asking Dillinger....... what dosage do you give your children?
Click to expand...

Hi Nigel, the younger one who is 11 months old gets 400 IU a day and the elder one who is 3 gets 1,000 IU a day.

The idea is to match the levels to body weight; with 35 IU per pound per day as a guide. To be honest I don't have their serum vitamin d levels checked, but I'm not aware of and am constantly on the look out for issues with toxicity for vitamin D3. So, I feel that at that level the potential for preventing problems outweighs any potential hidden problems.

The study that speaks the most to me had all participant children (0-12 months old) on 2,000 IU per day - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11705562

So, I think I'm being cautious here and could probably go to 2,000 IU a day for both, but I wouldn't want to do that without blood tests and that's not really practical for me or them (!)

Best

Dillinger
 


Thanks Dillinger that's interesting!

As you know I'm a big fan of Cod Liver Oil and taken it for the last 22 years, first in capsule form and later in liquid form believing it has many health benefits, I started all my children on a COD supplement from 12 years on, they take a Seven Seas one-a-day supplement which has 100% of the RDA for Vitamin D.

Anything we can do to prevent our young developing this condition has to be seen in a positive light, the recent research into Vit D and diabetes does give us just a small glimmer of hope IMHO.
 
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