Six vitamins to stop diabetes complications

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You might hear your healthcare team talk about long-term health problems in diabetes: serious ones that build up over time called chronic complications.

These health problems can develop gradually and lead to serious damage if they go unchecked and untreated.

The major diabetic complications include eye problems (retinopathy), foot problems (serious and can lead to amputation if untreated, heart attack and stroke, kidney problems, nerve damage (neuropathy), gum disease, sexual problems, and cancer.

Recent studies found that it is not always possible to stop diabetes complications unless you take these 6 vitamins regularly.

Benfotiamine vitamin

In a recent study, benfotiamine was shown to prevent cardiac dysfunction in diabetes through modulating the PI3 kinase‐AKT pathway12.

Hence, through affecting oxidative stress, a common pathogenetic pathway, benfotiamine might potentially prevent multiple chronic diabetic complications.

Alpha-lipoic acid

Lipoic acid, also known as α-lipoic acid, alpha-lipoic acid, and thioctic acid, is an organosulfur compound derived from caprylic acid. ALA is made in animals normally and is essential for aerobic metabolism.

Scientists have strong evidence that alpha-lipoic acid supplements help with type 2 diabetes. Several studies have found that they can improve insulin resistance.

Studies also found that alpha-lipoic acid supplements can help with neuropathy — nerve damage — caused by diabetes or cancer treatment.

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 is an essential nutrient for human health. It is involved in more than 150 metabolic reactions which regulate the metabolism of glucose, lipids, amino acids, DNA, and neurotransmitters.

Recent studies have indicated an evident inverse association between vitamin B6 levels and diabetes, as well as a clear protective effect of vitamin B6 on diabetic complications.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is a nutrient that helps keep your body’s blood and nerve cells healthy and helps make DNA, the genetic material in all of your cells.

Vitamin B12 replacement has been shown to cause symptomatic improvement among patients with severe diabetic neuropathy.

One meta-analysis showed that if used either alone or in combination with vitamin B complex, there was a significant improvement in somatic symptoms like pain and paraesthesias.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is involved in calcium absorption, immune function, and protecting bone, muscle, and heart health. It occurs naturally in food and your body can also produce it when your skin is exposed to sunlight.

Vitamin D supplementation may help lower average blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes and is especially effective in people who also have a vitamin D deficiency, and are non-obese and deficient.

Supplementation for more than 12 weeks at ≥ 1000 IU/day may be most beneficial.

Acetyl-L-Carnitine

Acetyl-L-carnitine is also known as ALC. It is used by some people with high blood sugar to help with cholesterol as well as nerve pain, such as tingling in their hands and feet.

Others have used it to help stop cell damage. It may also help to improve appetite and increase energy levels.

Recent studies found that Acetyl-L-Carnitine was well tolerated and may provide a novel therapeutic tool for the treatment of arterial high blood pressure, and of high blood cholesterol and could be safely used in people with type 2 diabetes.

If you care about supplements, please read studies that vitamin K may lower your heart disease risk by a third, and this vitamin could be a treatment for common blinding eye disease.

For more information about diabetes, please see recent studies about a new way to early detect diabetes-related blindness, and results showing how to protect your eyes from diabetes.

For more information, please check the video below

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