Among other properties, vitamin D is prescribed to patients for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, with its essential role in bone mineralization. But it would also play a role in insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas to regulate blood sugar (glucose) in blood. When the weight, blood pressure, cholesterol increases, metabolism is disturbed (the metabolic syndrome) and the cells become gradually as insulin resistant. This can lead to more or less long term, diabetes (elevated too high and prolonged blood sugar, risk of complications).

Team Pamela von Hurst at Massey University in New Zealand has therefore sought to study the effect of vitamin D supplementation on resistance to insulin. For this, the researchers administered 100 micrograms per day of vitamin D for 6 months to 42 women and a placebo (a pill without active ingredient) to 39 others.
The women in question, originally from Southeast Asia, were aged 23 to 68 years but more importantly, were insulin resistant. None of them followed by a possible treatment for diabetes.
The results show a significant decrease in insulin resitance in women supplemented with a parallel increase in their sensitivity to insulin even. The amount of insulin secreted by the pancreas has, meanwhile, remained unchanged.
This study, which deserves to be confirmed by another larger scale, could open opportunities to prevent or at least delay the onset of type 2 diabetes, which already affects over 150 million people in worldwide, including 3 million in France.