How Vitamin D May Help Protect Against Diabetes

…and other items from this week’s health science news:

D vs D

Vitamin D may help protect you from diabetes… Or it may not. The science is clear on this!

In other words: the data (with a large amount of data analysis and a RCT with 2,098 people with prediabetes) is clear about the effect in general, and what that science says, is that whether or not it helps you as an individual, will depend on your genes.

Specifically:

• Participants with the AA variation of the vitamin D receptor gene showed no meaningful response when taking 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily compared with a placebo.
• Participants with AC or CC in the the vitamin D receptor gene had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes when taking 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily compared with a placebo.

Why the genetic variation matters: vitamin D must bind to the vitamin D receptor to work in your body, and differences in this receptor—particularly in insulin-producing cells in your pancreas—will affect how well vitamin D helps regulate blood sugar.

So, this one’s a case for personalized prevention, where a simple genetic test could identify who is likely to benefit from higher vitamin D intake.

Read in full: Vitamin D may help prevent diabetes

Related: The Real Benefit Of Genetic Testing

Relighting the brain’s fire for happiness

Researchers (Dr. Alice Meuret et al.) have found that a therapy that directly targets lost pleasure (anhedonia*) improves depression and anxiety more than standard treatments that mainly reduce negative emotions.

^{*It’s not just about pleasure in the sense most might speak of such, though; anhedonia is the reduced or absent ability to feel positive emotions in general. It affects nearly all people with depression, and is strongly linked to worse outcomes, relapse, and suicidal risk.}

The problem with standard therapies: most treatments focus on reducing sadness, fear, or distress, but largely ignore rebuilding positive emotions—even though patients often see that as their main goal.

Positive Affect Treatment (PAT), in contrast, is a 15-session psychotherapy designed to restore joy, motivation, meaning, and reward sensitivity. Specifically, it targets the brain’s reward system by encouraging engagement in meaningful activities, shifting attention towards positive experiences, and practising gratitude, savoring, and compassion-based exercises.

As for how well it works: the RCT of 98 adults with severe anhedonia, depression, and anxiety compared PAT to a conventional therapy focused on negative emotions. The results? PAT produced greater overall clinical improvement, including reductions in both depression and anxiety, even though it never directly targeted negative emotions.

Read in full: Targeting lost pleasure lifts depression and anxiety more than standard therapy, new study finds

Related: Behavioral Activation Against Depression & Anxiety

Allergy season feeling different this year?

Due to climate change, pollen seasons are starting earlier, lasting longer, and even overlapping. because of warmer temperatures and higher CO₂, which keeps your immune system in overdrive for longer and leads to more intense symptoms.

Air pollution (which is getting steadily worse in the US and likely many other places too) can also alter pollen particles, making them more irritating to your airways and increasing inflammation.

Children’s symptoms are easy to miss: kids may show allergies through mouth breathing, fatigue, irritability, sleep issues, ear infections, or dark circles under your eyes rather than clearly describing symptoms.

A very common mistake (regardless of age), is starting treatment too late, and/or using medication only when symptoms become onerous, but by this time, your immune system has already been overworked, and taking anti-allergy meds now won’t mean the already-in-progress war in your body suddenly stops instantly.

So instead, you might consider starting allergy medication before symptoms peak, and then taking it consistently for a few weeks (even if the symptoms stop, because that is what the meds are for!), to prevent your immune response from ramping up.

Read in full: Are you managing your allergies the wrong way?

Related: Antihistamines’ Generation Gap

Take care!