Women With Type 2 Diabetes
American natural health expert and osteopathic physician, Dr. Sherry Rogers, tells her patients that, for women who have Type 2 diabetes, vitamin D is as valuable as metformin, the most commonly prescribed, and by some measures, most reliably effective diabetes medication. But how much of this vitamin do women with Type 2 diabetes need to help keep their blood sugar levels under control?
Vitamin D regulates the activity of the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas indirectly, by enabling the parathyroid glands to make calcitonin, a calcium-sequestration hormone. Calcitonin ensures that calcium flows into the tissues where it is needed. This hormone is essential for bone health, of course, but it is also needed for the release of insulin from the pancreas. When calcium flows into the beta cells, insulin flows out. The calcium helps ‘break out’ insulin from its protein-found storage form, pro-insulin.
It is never a good idea to take a megadose, for instance 100,000 IU a day, of this essential vitamin, even though the vitamin is extremely cheap. Calcium has important regulatory functions in every cell in the body, and acute overdose of D can cause a flow of calcium into the kidneys resulting in kidney failure.
If you have had a blood test that shows that you have low D levels, under about 40 ng/ml, then you benefit from taking up to about 5,000 IU of supplemental D every day. When you get your D levels back to at least normal, then you only need about 2,000 IU of D a day, but that’s very difficult to get from food, especially the best food sources of the vitamin which are cod liver oil, cold-water fish, butter (not margarine), and cream. There is also D in milk, but only about 100 IU per glass, and it’s absolutely not healthful to drink 20 glasses of milk per day!
Even when you get your D levels up to normal, it is a good idea to continue supplementation. Pills are fine. You don’t need expensive vitamin sprays. Or you can simply get sun.
Fair skin absorbs more sun than dark skin. Fair-skinned women can make about 10,000 IU of vitamin D after about 20 minutes of sun exposure. Dark-skinned women may need about 30 or even 40 minutes in the sun to make the same amount of the vitamin. It is essential to note though that skin not be covered by sun block… but it’s sunburn, not sun exposure, that’s the risk factor for skin cancer. If you cannot get sun every day, however, be sure to take supplements.