Vitamin C May Stop Type 1 Damages

If you want to heat up a conversation with your physician, make the comment that "supplements can cure."  But in the last year, more research from respected schools and facilities from the US and Europe are in agreement: supplements have value for those of us living with diabetes.

Researchers at the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center produced a study that says they have found a way to stop damage caused by type 1 diabetes, with a combination of insulin and vitamin C. 

Researchers found that using only one therapy alone did not produce the positive results, but together the results were very clear.  Vitamin C and insulin used in combination stopped the damage to blood vessels in type 1 diabetes patients with poor blood sugar control.

Much of the inspiration for this study at the Oklahoma College of Medicine was generated from the University of Warwick in England, and Dr. Ihnet's work at the University of Virginia.  Their concentration on the use of supplements to help stop or reverse vascular, heart and neuro damage by chronic illness.

While researchers do suggest that people with diabetes eat healthy foods and take a multivitamin, they are still trying to figure out how to make this work for general consumption. Apparently they gave high doses of vitamin c by injection directly into the blood stream. So the question remains whether we could get enough vitamin c from an over the counter supplement!

My regimen for vitamins includes antioxidants, vitamin b complex, CoQ10, and fish oil.  I just felt that there was enough evidence to show that taking them might help buffer my body from the damage that living with diabetes can bring.  One thing I backed off of was straight vitamin C.  First I'm wildly sensitive to ascorbic acid (it makes my skin itch), but I take vitamin c with rose hips and I don't have the same problem.  The other thing I don't do is take large doses.  I take what is recommended or maybe a little higher, because I realize I'm taking these every day.  I talk with my endocrinologist about them and she often tells me to pump them up and I do.  I eat well so I'm getting plenty from my diet. 

The irony of this story is that my mother used to overdose my brothers and myself with crystallized vitamin C when we were kids.  Mom was a big fan of Dr. Kenneth Cooper!  So could this little known recipe of care be what has kept my body complication free for 39 years?   After all these years, I'm glad I listened to my mom!

Studies involving type 2 patients are currently in the planning stages.

For more information, check out:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609122232.htm

http://www.ouhsc.edu/article-display.asp?idnum=1400

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jc.2009-0762v1

To find out if the research has begun for the type 2 vitamin c study, click here: