Abu Dhabi: A major research study is looking at the possible links between diabetes, vitamin D deficiency and depression, with the research focusing on whether each one of these factors can contribute to the other.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, more than 1 million people in the UAE were affected by diabetes in 2015, with most of them being young men.

Other data compiled by health organisations in the country has also shown that around 78 per cent of the UAE population is deficient in vitamin D. With such numbers, the country has made it a key policy to address these pressing health concerns.

“We conducted our research and tests on around 400 Emiratis, and we found a relation between vitamin D deficiency and depression. Through our tests we found that whenever someone had low vitamin D levels, they had a higher tendency to become depressed, and those who had high levels of depression had low vitamin D levels, so there was a direct correlation,” said Dr Fatme Al Anouti, from the College of Sustainability Sciences and Humanities at Zayed University, and the lead researcher behind the project.

According to Dr Al Anouti, the research also discovered that some people might be genetically predisposed to become diabetic or vitamin D deficient, which would have several far-reaching implications.

“We looked at the genetic components and found that maybe there is a genetic sequence that will predispose a person to either becoming diabetic or vitamin D deficient,” she said. “What we’re hoping for through our results is that we can improve the treatment strategy. If we know a person is predisposed to become diabetic or vitamin D deficient, this can benefit future intervention.

“So, if it is in someone’s genes to become diabetic but they are living a healthy lifestyle and have a good intake of vitamin D and avoid other health risk factors, they could still have a healthy life and modulate their genetics in a positive way … This also applies to people who are not genetically predisposed. We can say that maintaining an adequate level of vitamin D could have a protective effect,” she added.

Dr Al Anouti said that one of the health risk factors to avoid is depression, as it is can cause mental and physical harm.

“Depression can mimic any kind of disease. People may think they are suffering from a certain disease because they’re not eating enough healthy foods or maybe because they’re not exercising enough, but it could actually be linked to depression.

“If a person is depressed, they can share symptoms with many other diseases. Depression has an effect on the person’s immune system, the stress caused by depression leads to physical side effects and they can become sick and so on,” she explained.

“If a person is depressed, they become isolated and don’t really want to go out and, as a result, they suffer from a lack of sun exposure so they are more likely to become vitamin D deficient. Similarly, if a person is vitamin D deficient, this can also cause them to become depressed, so certainly if they are supplemented with the right amounts of vitamin D this can put them at a lower risk of having depression,” she added.

The study of depression presents its own challenges, according to Dr Al Anouti, with people who are depressed often unwilling to admit they are, or in many cases, they are unaware of the fact.

“There is a sensitivity about it without a doubt,” she said. “We faced it during our research and found that there was a hesitancy, the people who were depressed did not want other people to know.”

“There is also an ethical standpoint as well. For our research we mainly conducted our tests on people with mild depression because if someone is suffering from severe depression, we definitely have to help them go for an intervention and to get the medical support they require,” she added.