High hopes for Vitamin C
A HUMBLE vitamin C supplement may hold the key to tackling one of Australia’s biggest health scourges, type 2 diabetes.
A Deakin University study has shown taking 500mg of vitamin C twice daily can lower elevated blood sugar levels through the day and reduce blood sugar spikes after meals, in people with the chronic and potentially deadly disease.
The study — which is the first of its kind — also found high daily doses of vitamin C lowered blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes, reduc- ing the chance of heart disease.
With 1.2 million Aussies currently living with type 2 diabetes, the breakthrough could lead to a widely-available, simple, cheap and effec- tive complementary treatment for diabetics across the country.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Glenn Wadley, from Deakin’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, said trial participants taking vitamin C rather than the placebo had a significant 36 per cent drop in their blood sugar spike after meals.
“This also meant that they spent almost three hours less per day living in a state of hyperglycaemia,” he said. “This is extremely positive news as hyperglycaemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in people living with type 2 diabetes.
“We also found that the proportion of people with hypertension halved after taking the vitamin C capsules.”
The study, funded by the Diabetes Australia Research Trust, was recently published in the Journal of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
Associate Professor Wadley said the dose of vitamin C used in the study was about 10 times the normal dietary intake and readily available from most health food stores.
“Vitamin C’s antioxidant properties can help counteract the high levels of free radicals found in people with diabetes,” Associate Professor Wadley said.
Diabetes was a fast growing problem in Australia, with more than 100,000 Australians developing the disease in the past year, he said.
“While physical activity, good nutrition and current diabetes medications are standard care and very important for managing type 2 diabetes, some people can find it tough to manage their blood glucose levels even with medication,” he said. “We need to find new ways to help people with type 2 diabetes reduce the incidence and severity of diabetic complications and improve their quality of life.”
Diabetes Australia CEO Professor Greg Johnson said managing type 2 diabetes and maintaining healthy glucose levels and good heart health was a struggle for hundreds-ofthousands of Australians, making the trial results “very interesting”.
About 280 Australians develop diabetes every day or one person every five minutes.