Erika Jurkutė¹, Diana vasiljevaitė¹, Simona Abraitytė¹

¹ Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Academy of Medicine. Faculty of Medicine.

 ABSTRACT

                  Type two diabetes mellitus ( T2DM) and obesity are one of the most common problems in modern society. It is known that excessive body weight is encouraged due to unhealthy lifestyle and intense promoting of habits which have a negative effect on health. According to today’s knowledge obesity have a major influence on developing T2DM and because of that  T2DM patients frequently are characterized by their excessive body weight. Currently, more than 400 million people are affected by T2DM. Unfortunately, this number is growing constantly, especially in countries which are more economically developed. In order to deal with these problems, various health improvement methods and weight loss programs are used prior to the use of medication. Over the last decade, attempts have been made to develop better and innovative treatments to cope with obesity and T2DM. Research has shown that fat-soluble vitamin D is associated with these sensitive problems – it has been observed that diabetic or obese patients suffer from vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency. It is hypothesized that the low level of vitamin D in blood serum may take an important role in the pathogenesis of T2DM and obesity. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how vitamin D modulates the function of pancreatic β cells in T2DM and it is not entirely clear how adipocytes differentiation is controlled in obese patients. Due to this reason studies are still unable to answer whether vitamin D supplements can be used as antidiabetic treatment and body weight reduction. This literature review discusses the aspects of vitamin D metabolism in the human body, the effect of vitamin D on pancreatic β cells, insulin production and investigates the influence of developing an inflammatory response in T2DM. In addition, this literature review discusses the role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of obesity and the importance of losing weight.

Keywords: diebetes mellitus, type 2, vitamin D.