Vitamin D deficiency means higher death risk in diabetes patients

Diabetes Drug Mediator linked to 500 deaths

The French medical watchdog agency l'Afssaps has recently recommended that patients who took diabetes drug mediator should get tested for heart value damage.

A report released by France's national health insurance organization CNAM says that in the past 30 years, as many as 500 patients may have died from complications related directly to the diabetes drug Mediator, which was indicated for diabetic and overweight patients.

The medication, which was actually discontinued in Nov 2009, was reportedly prescribed to more than 303,000 patients, according to the health insurance organization and was found to cause heart damage in some patients.

Media reports say the French General Practitioners Union was informed of this issue and the organization is prepared to test those who received treatment with Mediator for more than 3 months  in the past four years.

Officials have said a monitoring panel will be established.

Vitamin D deficiency means higher death risk in diabetes patients

A new study in Diabetes Care - a journal of American Diabetes Association suggests diabetes with severe vitamin D deficiency are at much higher risk of dying from all causes and cardiovascular disease compared with others.

The study led by Christel Joergensen, M.D. of Steno Diabetes Center in Gentofte, Denmark and colleagues showed diabetes patients with severe vitamin D deficiency defined as having less than 13.9 nmol/L were 95 percent more likely than those whose vitamin D levels were higher than 13.9 nmol/L.

For the study, the researchers followed 289 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with 172 having normoalbuminuria, 73 having microalbuminuria and 44 having macroabuminuria for 15 years.

The average level of vitamin D was found at 35.7 nmol/L. 

After adjustment for confounders like A1C, diabetes duration and conventional cardiovascular risk factors, diabetes mellitus patients who had severe vitamin D deficiency were found 103 percent more likely to die from all causes, compared with those having higher levels.

The researchers also found diabetes patients with severe vitamin D deficiency were 95 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, compared with those having higher levels.  After adjustment for confounders, the association remained the same.

The researchers concluded "In type 2 diabetic patients, severe vitamin D deficiency predicts increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, independent of UAER (urinary albumin excretion rate) and conventional cardiovascular risk factors."

An estimated 20 million Americans live with diabetes. The disease can lead to a series of health complications.

David Liu