Vitamins for diabetics

Diabetes is an affliction that is ever-gaining in industrialized countries. As many as 17 million Americans alone are victim to this life-threatening chronic illness. While insulin is prescribed to help nullify the effects that diabetes can have on your body, it is hardly a solution. Long term issues arise regardless of how strictly one monitors their condition.

Diabetics have a lot of worries to consider. Keeping track of blood glucose levels, maintaining a healthy diet, and ensuring they get plenty of exercise are just a few of the tasks that a diabetic faces. Even when an individual does all that they can to help to control their condition, many diabetics inevitably face damage to their body from the disease’s long term effects. A sigh of relief can be breathed, however, since new studies have been showing that some vitamins may be quite beneficial to treating diabetes.

Vitamins C and E have been isolated as two of the factors that help the body to utilize insulin more efficiently. Studies conducted at the University of California Irvine have shown that these two anti-oxidants enhance the ability of insulin to lower blood sugar levels. Blood pressure is heightened in diabetes patients who do not properly monitor their glucose levels, and more ‘free radical’ cells are formed as a result. These free radicals viciously attack the cells of the body, damaging the cell membranes of proteins and sugars. Anti-oxidant compounds such as Vitamin A and Vitamin C have been known for years to help ward off the effects of these free radicals. One factor that was not previously realized, however, is that the additional free radicals that are created by the diabetic condition may turn harmless cells of nitrous oxide into dangerous toxic chemicals, damaging tissues and leading to some of diabetes’ worst long term effects, including damage to the nerves, kidneys, liver, and heart. An experiment was conducted on diabetic rats in which some were given only insulin and others were provided with a mixture of insulin and Vitamins C and E . The researchers were astonished to discover that the rats who were injected with the vitamin/insulin mixture experienced none of the harmful effects caused by the free radicals! They helped the insulin to form a protective barrier, not allowing the free radicals any chance at deteriorating the nitrous oxide. This can prove to be a very important factor for those with diabetes; many of the long-term effects associated with diabetes occur eventually, even in those who carefully monitor their insulin levels. While the studies have a long way to go before reaching any major conclusion, scientists are now recommending that all diabetics indulge in a diet rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin E. While the effects have only been noted thus far in trials with rats, it’s not a poor idea to keep your body stocked with anti-oxidants. Now that we know that they are the culprit when it comes to organ damage from diabetes, we can more accurately fight them!