Posted on 08/07/2007 6:10:11 PM PDT by blam
Diabetes damage linked to vitamin B1 shortage
Last Updated: 1:43am BST 08/08/2007
Diabetics have three-quarters less vitamin B1 in their blood than healthy people, research has shown.
A study by the University of Warwick has linked this shortfall, which occurs in sufferers with both type one and two of the disease, to damage to the kidneys, retina and nerves in the arms and legs that are all common symptoms of the disease.
Prof Paul Thornalley, from the university, said that vitamin supplements could be taken by all diabetics and would work alongside conventional glucose controls.
The study is published in Diabetologia, the diabetes journal. A LACK of vitamin B1 has been linked to vascular disease in diabetes sufferers.
Researchers at the University of Warwick found that diabetics - both type one and type two sufferers - had three quarters less thiamine (vitamin B1) in their blood than healthy people.
In what could be a major finding for treatment of diabetes-related vascular conditions, the experts found the shortage was linked to damage to the kidneys, retina and nerves in the arms and legs - common in diabetics. Prof Paul Thornalley, lead researcher, said a vitamin B1 supplement could be taken by all diabetics and would work alongside conventional glucose controls.
He said: "This is a particularly important study because thiamine has been found to prevent vascular problems in previous research.'' The study - published in diabetes journal Diabetologia - compared 26 type 1 and 48 type 2 diabetics with 20 healthy patients.
It found thiamine concentration in blood plasma was decreased 76 per cent in type 1 sufferers and 75 per cent in type 2 patients.
You are right, according to another article which seems more detailed than the one posted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/health/6935482.stm - Diabetes problems 'vitamin link'
A simple vitamin deficiency may be the cause of many of the side effects of diabetes, a study suggests.
Researchers found people with the disease expelled thiamine - vitamin B1 - from their bodies at 15 times the normal rate in a study of 94 people.
The Warwick University team said thiamine helped ward off complications such as heart disease and eye problems, the Diabetologia journal said.
Not a cure, but can be a huge relief and improvement in quality of life.
That’s a great read. I hope folks on this board check it out. Thiamine is really inexpensive.
Bones offer new hope for diabetes
Bones may play a more active role than previously thought in regulating the body's chemistry, scientists say.
An international team found the molecule osteocalcin, produced by bone cells, is active in helping to regulate blood sugar levels in mice.
This is important in the development of diabetes and obesity, so the findings, in the journal Cell, offer the hope of new ways to treat these conditions.
But experts have warned more research is needed to confirm the link.
...
Novel function
Lead author Professor Gerard Karsenty of the Columbia University said: "Osteocalcin has been known since 1977 to be made by osteoblast cells, but it had no known function."
However, the team found a novel function of the molecule.
Usually, an increase in insulin levels in the blood is accompanied by a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
But the authors found osteocalcin boosted both the secretion and the sensitivity to insulin.
In mice, increasing the activity of the molecule stimulated pancreatic cells to produce more insulin and at the same time directed fat cells to release a hormone called adiponectin - which improves insulin sensitivity.
It also stimulated the production of the insulin-producing cells themselves, which is currently considered to be one of the best, although unattainable, potential treatments for diabetes.
Increasing the activity of osteocalcin also prevented the development if type 2 diabetes and obesity in the mice, and mice who could make no osteocalcin had type 2 diabetes and increased fat mass.
New therapies
Professor Karsenty said: "The discovery that our bones are responsible for regulating blood sugar in ways that were not known before completely changes out understanding of the function of the skeleton and uncovers a crucial aspect of energy metabolism.
"These results uncover an important aspect of endocrinology that was unappreciated until now."
And the finding could provide a new therapeutic target to help treat diabetes in humans too, as people with type 2 diabetes have been shown to have low osteocalcin levels.
The researchers will now investigate the role of osteocalcin in regulating blood sugar in humans.
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