A recent study provides further confirmation that vitamin C lowers blood pressure and blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. Published in the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism journal by researchers from Australia and the Netherlands, the study found that participants given supplemental vitamin C achieved significant reductions in both these key health parameters. The researchers concluded that their findings provide scientific evidence for the use of vitamin C as an adjunct therapy in type 2 diabetes.
The participants in the study included a total of 31 patients, comprising 26 men and 5 women. All of the patients had type 2 diabetes. The researchers split them into two groups. One group was given 500 mg of vitamin C twice per day, while the other was given a placebo pill. After four months the researchers analyzed the results and found that the patients taking vitamin C had a 36 percent drop in their blood sugar spike after meals. This resulted in them spending almost 3 hours less per day in a state of hyperglycemia.
Equally impressively, at the end of the study, in the group receiving the vitamin C supplements, half of the patients who previously had high blood pressure were found to have normalized their blood pressure. This was a significant outcome as cardiovascular disease and its complications are very common in diabetes, even in patients whose blood sugar levels are successfully controlled. Commenting on the results, associate professor Glenn Wadley, who led the study, said that the findings may help millions of people currently living with the condition.
The study builds on previous research demonstrating the benefits of vitamin C in diabetes. In chapter 7 of his book ‘Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks…But People Do!’, Dr. Rath summarizes a clinical case study illustrating how diabetic patients can significantly lower their daily insulin requirements by increasing their intake of vitamin C. A hormone produced in the pancreas, in type 2 diabetes the body either does not make, or does not use, insulin very well. Conducted at Stanford University in California, the lead author of this clinical case study, Dr. J.F. Dice, was also the diabetic patient who was followed in it.
At the beginning of the study, Dr. Dice was injecting himself with 32 units of insulin daily. During the following three weeks, he gradually increased his intake of vitamin C until, by day 23, he had reached a total of 11 grams per day. By this point, Dr. Dice’s daily requirement for insulin had reduced from 32 units to 5 units. As such, for every additional gram of vitamin C he supplemented with, he found he could spare around 2.5 units of insulin.
Other studies have made similar findings and suggested that diabetes can be controlled by vitamin C treatment. For optimum prevention and control of the condition, however, the addition of other supplemental micronutrients is necessary.
Still unknown to the majority of doctors, Dr. Rath’s Cellular Medicine research has shown that the primary cause of type 2 diabetes is chronic deficiency of specific micronutrients in the cells of the pancreas, the blood vessel walls, the liver, and other organs of the body. This important discovery opens up the exciting possibility that, by supplementing with the correct micronutrients, the disease can be prevented and controlled. In addition to vitamin C, Dr. Rath’s recommendations for diabetic patients therefore include supplementing with vitamin E; vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, folic acid and biotin; inositol and choline; and the minerals magnesium and chromium.
In a scientific demonstration of the effectiveness of this micronutrient combination in type 2 diabetes, researchers at the Dr. Rath Research Institute conducted a clinical pilot study involving 10 patients suffering from the condition. After a period of 6 months during which the patients supplemented with the micronutrients, their blood sugar levels were reduced from an average of 155 mg/dl to an average of 120 mg/dl. Other key diabetes-related blood values were also improved.
World Health Organization statistics show that around 422 million people worldwide now have diabetes. This number has grown rapidly in recent years, with the disease’s prevalence among adults over the age of 18 having risen from 4.7 percent in 1980 to 8.5 percent in 2014. This increase is a clear sign that conventional medicine has failed to understand the primary cause of the condition. But as Dr. Rath’s research and a growing number of supporting studies now show, the eventual eradication of type 2 diabetes and its devastating cardiovascular complications is now possible.