Scientists in Canada have made a big discovery that could change how we understand and treat type 2 diabetes. A team at Université de Montréal and the Montreal Clinical Research Institute has found that vitamin K, a nutrient known for helping blood to clot, also plays a key role in keeping the pancreas healthy—especially the cells that produce insulin.
Insulin is the hormone that controls blood sugar levels. When the body doesn’t make enough insulin, or doesn’t use it properly, it leads to diabetes. One in every eleven people around the world is living with this disease, so this new finding could have a big impact.
Vitamin K is usually known for helping the body stop bleeding. It does this by helping with a chemical process called gamma-carboxylation, which helps certain proteins work properly in the blood. But scientists have long suspected that this nutrient might have other important roles in the body too.
Some earlier studies showed that people who eat less vitamin K might have a higher risk of diabetes, but no one really understood why. That’s what this new study set out to discover.
The research team, led by Dr. Mathieu Ferron, focused on pancreatic beta cells. These cells live in the pancreas and make insulin. The researchers found that beta cells contain high amounts of the enzymes needed for gamma-carboxylation. This was exciting because it meant that vitamin K might be doing something important in those cells.
To dig deeper, the scientists looked for specific proteins inside beta cells that need vitamin K to function. They discovered a brand new protein called ERGP. This protein is very important because it helps control calcium levels inside beta cells.
Calcium is needed for these cells to release insulin properly. If the calcium balance is off, the cells can’t release insulin when it’s needed—and that’s a problem for people with diabetes.
The study showed that ERGP only works well if it goes through gamma-carboxylation, which depends on vitamin K. Without enough vitamin K, ERGP doesn’t function correctly, and insulin release can become disrupted.
This is the first time in 15 years that scientists have discovered a new protein in the body that relies on vitamin K. It opens up a whole new area of research for diabetes and possibly other diseases too.
This discovery could lead to new treatments for type 2 diabetes, especially ones that focus on supporting beta cells with vitamin K. It also gives scientists a clearer picture of how the body controls blood sugar, and how nutrients like vitamins play a bigger role than we once thought.
If you want to take care of your blood sugar, it’s important to learn about recent research. Some studies show that eating foods like avocados may help with type 2 diabetes. Others have found ways to help people put diabetes into remission.
And if you’re also concerned about your bones, there’s more good news—vitamin K is known to help keep bones strong and may lower the risk of fractures in older adults.
The full study was published in Cell Reports, a respected scientific journal, and it may be the beginning of a new chapter in how we think about preventing and treating diabetes.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about 5 vitamins that may prevent complication in diabetes, and how to manage high blood pressure and diabetes with healthy foods.
For more health information, please see recent studies about vitamin D and type2 diabetes, and to people with type 2 diabetes, some fruits are better than others.
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