Calcium and vitamin D supplements have been found to reduce blood sugar levels in women with gestational diabetes and improve other measures of metabolic health, a small study has found.
For the study, Iranian researchers randomly assigned 56 women with gestational diabetes to receive either 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day along with 50,000 units of vitamin D twice for six weeks, or to get placebo pills,
The New York Times reports.
Blood samples were taken at the start and the end of the project.
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The results, published online in the journal Diabetolgia, found women in the supplement group had improved fasting blood glucose and cholesterol levels.
Lead researcher Ahmad Esmaillzadeh, M.D., an associate professor at the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, said that the findings are promising but that vitamin D supplements are not suitable for all women.
"Vitamin D has some toxic effects on women and their babies, so we cannot recommend that all women should take it," he said. "But we can recommend it for people with gestational diabetes who are vitamin D deficient."
Gestational diabetes is the development of high blood glucose levels during pregnancy in women who were not previously diabetic. It affects about 7 percent of women in the United States. It can lead to serious birth complications and increases the risk for Type 2 diabetes later in life.