Many of us know that the most important and effective manner to deal with diabetes is to eat a well-balanced diet. However, what many of us do not know, however, is the fact that most of the diabetics suffer from the deficiency of essential vitamins. Research has shown that if you have an adequate quantity of vitamins in your body from an early age, you can avoid getting diabetes. Once you have contracted the condition, you can slow or prevent the progression of the same by maintaining the recommended levels of essential vitamins. In this article, we try to answer the question “Does Vitamins Help to Prevent Diabetes?”

Advantages of Taking Vitamins for Diabetes

Taking vitamin supplements can provide the following advantages to the diabetes patients:

• When you have diabetes, the body has excess amounts of glucose which it is trying to get rid of in the form of urine. In the process, several nutrients, antioxidants, minerals, which are essential for the good health of the body are also washed away. Hence, a diabetic does need various supplements in order to replenish the same.
• When you are a diabetic, you have elevated levels of blood glucose. This causes free radicals that lead to the damage of important proteins that your body is known to house. It also depletes the production of nitric oxide with the result that there is a blocking in the essential blood vessels. A lot of complications such as atherosclerosis, heart diseases, etc. are caused. In order to avoid this, supplements such as vitamins are required.
• Besides, several research studies have indicated that diabetics are always deficient in essential vitamins in their bodies. Hence, these vitamins supplements are needed to effectively manage diabetes.
• When you are a diabetic, you need to stabilize the levels of your blood glucose. If you are taking adequate medications but your body lacks efficient vitamins, you will not be able to achieve normalization of your blood glucose levels. This makes the intake of vitamin supplements all the more important.

Thus, along with a healthy lifestyle and a well-balanced diet, what you also need is a proper vitamin supplement under the supervision of your doctor. In the next paragraph, find out the best vitamins that are best suited for those who want to avoid the condition and its complications.

Best Vitamins That Help Against Diabetes-Related Complications

Following is the list of a few vitamins that are known to prevent diabetes and the diabetes-related complications. In a few cases, when the onset of diabetes has already been diagnosed, the following vitamins will reduce and even prevent the progression of the condition. Following are the most effective vitamins for a person with diabetes:

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is known to carry several health benefits for the body including the prevention of type 1 diabetes in patients.

The prevention of type 1 diabetes is achieved with the regular consumption of vitamin D because it helps to boost the immune system of the body and as we know, type 1 is an auto-immune disorder. It is known that when you have adequate levels of vitamin D since an early age, the chances of the autoimmune attack which the cells of the pancreas indulge in is significantly reduced.

In people who already have been diagnosed with diabetes and are at an early stage of the condition, the taking of vitamin D can help improve the sensitivity of the body towards insulin, thereby preventing diabetes to progress further.

Vitamin E

Another important vitamin which plays an important role in treating the adverse effects of diabetes is vitamin E. This vitamin is known to offer several health benefits including improving the body’s sensitivity to insulin. It also helps to fight away harmful toxins that develop when you suffer from diabetes. Further, the vitamin plays a great role in enhancing the oxygen levels in the blood.

It is a known fact that when there are adequate amounts of vitamin E in your body, your risk of contracting type 2 diabetes is reduced to a great extent.

Biotin

Biotin plays an important role in treating diabetes-related complications by improving insulin sensitivity. When you have nerve damage, you usually experience a lot of pain and taking this vitamin will help in the reduction of the same. It reduces the level of triglycerides in the body. Finally, biotin is extremely helpful as it helps the body in the better utilization of proteins, fats, as well as carbohydrates.

Vitamin B6, B12, and Folate

These are all different forms of vitamin B. These vitamins help in reducing the complications of diabetes by protecting your heart. These vitamins reduce the level of homocysteine. If you have low levels of B6 in your body, it is said that you will probably experience intolerance of glucose which again is not good for your health. However, be careful that when you are intaking these vitamins, you have to be cautious enough and not take the extra dose as the same may be really harmful.

Vitamin C

Sorbitol is a harmful form of sugar which when accumulates in the body, causes adverse health effects in the patients who happen to suffer from diabetes. If you increase the levels of vitamin C in your body, the amount of sorbitol can be reduced. The effect of this would be that you will be protected from diabetes-related complications such as diabetic retinopathy. Vitamin C is particularly at low levels when you happen to suffer from type 1 diabetes as compared to when you suffer from type 2 diabetes.

Guidelines for Choosing Your Vitamin Supplement

While taking the above-mentioned vitamins and various supplements can prove to be beneficial for your diabetes, you should be very careful about the following points and guidelines:

• First and foremost, do consult your doctor before you settle in for a particular type of vitamin.
• When you are taking vitamin D supplements, try to eat the food rich in this vitamin along with some source of fat as vitamin D happens to be fat-soluble.
• If you take vitamin D pills, it is hugely recommended that such a pill should be taken right before you eat your largest meal of the dayas it will help you in maximizing the health benefits you get out of vitamin D.
• When you are taking vitamin E as a supplement, care should be taken to not go over the top, particularly if your doctor has prescribed medicines such as warfar in or aspirin for you.
• Do note that you are taking in only the natural form of vitamin E and not any other form of the supplement.
• Similarly, if you go for a supplement of the folate, the best health benefits are derived from the product that has been labeled as “5-MTHF”.

Thus, follow the above guidelines and you will be good to go with your vitamin supplement.

We hope that the above article has been able to help your understanding as to whether or not vitamins can help in the prevention of diabetes. There is evidence that vitamin supplements are needed and that the disease can be prevented altogether if you have sufficient levels of all the essential vitamins in your body. However, that evidence is not very strong and more research is being conducted on those lines. What we do know, for sure, is that once you do contract diabetes, you can slow its progression and prevent its complications by improving the levels of essential vitamins in your body!!