Supplements of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids (often sold as fish oil) do not help people with type 2 diabetes stave off chronic kidney disease, according to findings from the largest clinical study to date of the supplements in this patient population.
The paper was published today in JAMA and presented concurrently at an American Society of Nephrology conference in Washington, D.C.
“We were hopeful for both of these interventions, vitamin D and fish oil, but they don’t appear to be particularly effective for this purpose,” said Dr. Ian de Boer, the paper’s lead author. He is a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and associate director of the Kidney Research Institute, a collaboration of UW Medicine and Northwest Kidney Centers.
Of the 28 million Americans who live with type 2 diabetes, de Boer said, about 40 percent develop chronic kidney disease, a condition in which the kidneys cannot adequately remove waste and fluid from the body. This disrupts a person’s health in myriad ways and can progress to kidney failure. It also greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular events and death.
