Vitamin D supplementation may aid new-onset pediatric type 1 diabetes

High-dose vitamin D supplementation in pediatric patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes may reduce complications, according to a study published online Aug. 18 in Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Benjamin Udoka Nwosu, M.D., from the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in New Hyde Park, New York, randomly assigned 36 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes to receive either vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol, given as 50,000 international units per week for two months and then every other week for 10 months) or a placebo.

The researchers found that vitamin D was significantly associated with a lower temporal rise in hemoglobin A1c at a mean rate of change of 0.14 percent every three months versus 0.46 percent every three months for the placebo group. Additionally, vitamin D was significantly associated with the functional marker of partial clinical remission, the insulin-dose adjusted hemoglobin A1c at a mean rate of change of 0.30 percent every three months versus 0.77 percent every three months for the placebo group.

"We recommend a baseline estimation of 25(OH)D concentration at the time of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, and to begin vitamin D supplementation if serum 25(OH)D concentration is <30 ng/mL, to maintain serum 25(OH)D concentrations between 30 to 60 ng/mL," Nwosu writes.