Role of vitamin D in women with diabetes and depression to be investigated

A new study is to investigate whether vitamin D can benefit women who suffer from both diabetes and depression.
Sue M. Penckofer, a researcher from the Loyola University Chicago Niehoff School of Nursing, has received a four-year, $1.49 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to examine if vitamin D supplementation can improve mood in depressed/diabetic women, and thus lead to better self-management of their diabetes.
The Loyola investigators plan to enrol 180 women who have type 2 diabetes, show symptoms of depression and have low levels of vitamin D in their blood.
Each participant will be randomly assigned to six months of either a weekly vitamin D supplementation (50,000 International Units) or a matching weekly placebo.
The aim is to provide evidence for how the vitamin works as an antidepressant by exploring whether vitamin D supplementation reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers, such as cytokines and C-reactive protein (CRP), which in previous studies have been shown to be higher in people with depression.
Vitamin D plays a number of important roles in the body, including maintaining the health of bones, joints and teeth .
The sunshine vitamin is also believed to have a number of health benefits for people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk of developing the metabolic disorder.