1. Dr. Davis (cardiologist and owner of The Heart Scan Blog) has a new post about how over the past 2 1/2 years has not prescribed any pre-diabetes medications and instead now prescribes vitamin D. He says that in his experience the D exceeds the effects of the medications he formerly used. He also discusses the importance of staying off of wheat (I could definitely start a whole new web site dedicated to that important topic!)

2. Pilot study to examine link between vitamin D and insulin resistance : “If we’re right, then the results of this study may one day help support the use of vitamin D in a clinical setting,” says Grossman. “Practitioners could implement this at very low cost, because vitamin D supplements are cheap. Some of the more common treatments currently available for insulin resistance are quite expensive.” Investigators at The Rockefeller University Hospital began screening applicants in January and expect a conclusion to the study in one year.

3. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine have done a new vitamin D study.

The study included the use of tanning beds and measuring vitamin D blood levels.

“Vitamin D deficiency is common in both children and adults worldwide,” said Michael Holick, PhD, MD, director of the General Clinical Research Center and professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at BUSM and senior author of this study. “Exposure to lamps that emit UVB radiation is an excellent source for producing vitamin D3 in the skin and is especially efficacious in patients with fat malabsortion syndromes.”

The study will appear in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

That’s all for now!