Vitamin D Deficiency Increases risk of Diabetic Foot Ulcer

As we know, vitamin D deficiency may lead various bone related diseases like rickets, a disease in which the bone tissue doesn’t properly mineralize, leading to soft bones and skeletal deformities. But increasingly, research is revealing the importance of vitamin D in protecting against a host of health problems.

Severe vitamin D deficiency in diabetic patients may lead to diabetic foot ulcer as per the meta-analysis of seven studies. These include nested case-control or cohort studies to investigate a link between diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) incidences in patients with vitamin D deficiency . The patients selected were with severe vitamin D deficiency (defined as 25-OHD <10 ng/mL).

The meta-analysis researched data of 1,115 diabetic patients. Pooled data confirms that serum vitamin D levels in 543 patients with DFU was significantly lower than in the 572 patients without foot ulcer (mean difference [MD], −13.47 nmol/L; 95 percent CI, −16.84 to −10.10).

More percentage of patients represented with vs without DFU had severe vitamin D deficiency (48.98 vs 22.78 percent). On the forest plot, severe vitamin D deficiency (25-OHD <10 ng/mL) showed a significant relationship with the risk of DFU.

The present data have important clinical implications as it may aid in the development of a new therapy for DFU, researchers said. Vitamin D supplementation may be a valid therapeutic option for diabetes with foot ulcer and vitamin D deficiency.

Further research is required to verify the effect of vitamin D supplementation in the prevention or treatment of DFU, they added.

Ref : Nutr Diabetes 2019;doi:10.1038/s41387-019-0078-9