Vitamin C and diabetes

Vitamin C seems to be important in the immune system and in the manufacture and metabolism of neurotransmitters and hormones.

Numerous studies have shown that vitamin C plasma levels are about 30 percent lower in people with diabetes, as compared with people who do not have diabetes.

Insulin facilitates the transport of vitamin C into the cells. People with type 2 diabetes, however, are resistance to their own insulin and not enough insulin enters their cells.

So when there is an insulin deficiency, there will be a deficiency in intracellular vitamin C – thus the relative deficiency in vitamin C in many diabetics, even if they consume an adequate amount of vitamin in their diet.

This lead to a subclinical scurvy problem, which creates an increased tendency to bleed, poor wound healing, microvascular disease, heart disease, elevation of cholesterol and a depressed immune system.

In one study, researchers found that high doses of vitamin C markedly improved blood sugar regulation in people with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. In another study, it was observed that vitamin C enhanced glucose disposal by enhancing insulin sensitivity without affecting insulin secretion.

Vitamin C has also been shown to improve blood vessel dilation, which is often impaired in people with diabetes.

A large population-based study in England, published in 2000, showed that the people with the lowest long-term blood sugar levels had the highest levels of vitamin C and vice versa.
Vitamin C and diabetes

Vitamin D and diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a common disease in Western world, with an estimated prevalence of 4 to 5%.

An estimated 19 million people are affected by diabetes in the EU 25, equal to four per cent of the total population. This figure is projected to increase to 26 million by 2030.

In the US, there are over 20 million people with diabetes, equal to seven per cent of the population.

There is a suggestion has been made that vitamin D insufficiency is the fundamental feature of the metabolic syndrome, leading to is various clinical manifestations. There was a study in Netherlands shows that the lower the vitamin D level, the greater the intolerance to glucose.

In animal studies by the University of California at Riverside showed that vitamin D is necessary for the pancreas to release insulin. Vitamin D deficiency produces insulin resistance in tissues.

Vitamin D actually directly acts on the muscle and fat cells to improve insulin action by reducing insulin resistance.

Vitamin D directly improves insulin production and its action by improving the level of calcium inside the cells. Vitamin D deficiency has been shown to impair insulin synthesis and secretion in humans and in animal model of diabetes.

This vitamin needed to maintain adequate blood levels of insulin. Actually levels of vitamin D are associated with control of many things that cause complications in diabetes: higher levels of HDL-C, lower levels of LDL-C, and better blood pressure control.

Vitamin D would appear to have a potential role in the prevention of diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Vitamin D and diabetes