This research could lead to vitamin D supplementation playing a role in preventing this serious life-changing auto-immune disease in adults, as this is the time when your immune system starts to damage your tissues. According to Kassandra Munger, a research associate at HSPH, who led the study, ‘It is surprising that a serious disease such as Type 1 diabetes could perhaps be prevented by a simple and safe intervention’.
For the study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the team of researchers identified 310 individuals diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes between 1997 and 2009, and examined their blood samples, which were taken before onset of the disease. They compared these to the blood samples of 613 people in a control group who did not have the disease.
Type 1 diabetes is a disease where your immune system immune system attacks and permanently disables the cells in your pancreas that are responsible for making insulin. This is a prominent disease in the West in particular, as the American Diabetes Association notes that roughly 5% of the 25.8 million people living in America, for example, suffer from this condition. Though you may think that it begins, more often than not, in childhood, Harvard released a statement which said that approximately 60% of Type 1 diabetes cases occur after the age of 20.