Vitamin D Strikes Out Again, This Time Failing to Protect Kidney Function in People with Diabetes

The nationwide study tells us we should be looking outside of the supplement aisle when it comes to treating diabetes.

It was Kidney Week — the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology last week and 14,000 practitioners descended on the nations capital to discuss the latest developments in the field.

So it is in the spirit of homeostasis that I want to talk about one study, appearing now in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which answered a question we’d all been wondering: could a cheap, widely available dietary supplement alter the course of kidney decline in people with diabetes?

Factorial design. Two trials for the price of 1.5.

In a wonderful bit of factorial design, the trial actually examined 2 supplements — vitamin D in the form of 2000 IU/ day of cholecalciferol and fish oil — omega-3 fatty acid.