MONDAY, June 21 (HealthDay News) -- Low vitamin D levels are common among individuals with type 2 diabetes and are linked to poor blood sugar control; low vitamin D also appears to be a risk factor for metabolic syndrome in older adults, according to research presented at the annual meeting of The Endocrine Society, held from June 19 to 22 in San Diego.

Ravi Kant, M.D., of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, and colleagues performed a retrospective continuous chart review of 124 patients with type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that 91.1 percent of patients were vitamin D deficient, with 35.5 percent severely deficient (<15 ng/dL), 38.7 percent moderately deficient (>14 to <26 ng/dL), and 16.9 percent mildly deficient (>25 to <33 ng/dL). In addition, serum vitamin D levels were inversely related to hemoglobin A1c values.

In a substudy of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), Mirjam Oosterwerff, M.D., of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues evaluated individuals 65 years of age and older who took part in a medical interview during 1995 to 1996. They found that 36.9 percent of the participants had metabolic syndrome. After adjustment for confounders, the researchers found that individuals with blood levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D <50 nmol/L had a higher risk of metabolic syndrome (odds ratio, 1.32) compared to those with vitamin D levels >50 nmol/L. This increased risk was particularly related to the presence of low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and a large waist circumference.

"It is important to investigate the exact role of vitamin D in diabetes to find new and maybe easy ways to prevent it and cardiovascular disease," a co-author of the LASA substudy said in a statement.

Abstract No. P1-164
Abstract No. P1-168
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