Diabetes puts people at a high risk for heart attack and stroke. This is because diabetes causes a chronic, low level of wide spread inflammation. Even people that are considered pre-diabetic have around 33% more inflammation than a healthy person. People with more advanced diabetes have about twice that.
A recent study done by Ishwarlal Jialal and Sridevi Devaraj at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center showed these levels of inflammation, measured by the amount of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood. The volunteers in the study included 47 men and women with type 2 diabetes and 25 healthy men and women. Everyone’s blood was tested for inflammation markers before and after the study. Everyone was given 1,200 international units of vitamin E every day for three months.
The CRP levels (indicating inflammation) were lowered in all of the subjects participating. The volunteers with mild diabetes or pre-diabetes showed inflammation levels that dropped to that of the healthy group. The patients with severe diabetes symptoms, such as kidney failure, had their CRP levels drop to that of the patients with mild diabetes.
Jialal reported that the vitamin E supplements greatly reduced the production of the cytokine interleukin-6, an immune-system signaling molecule. Production was cut by about two-thirds. Interleukin-6 is responsible for signaling the liver to produce CRP, which causes body wide inflammation. Because complications of diabetes, such as increased heart attack and stroke risk, are caused by this inflammation, adult onset type 2 diabetes is now considered a disease of the immune system.
Sushil Jain, a biochemist of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, says that supplementing with vitamin E dampens interleukin-6 production in the blood, so it should reduce inflammation and atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries.
British diabetes specialist John C. Pickup of Guy’s Hospital in London says that this new information is “further evidence that type 2 diabetes is a disease of the immune system”. He points out that five years ago, “people would have said that was a ridiculous idea.”
CRP levels increase as diabetes progresses, causing weight gain and often times, obesity. Obesity, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and chronic inflammation are strongly related, putting patients at risk for any one of these at risk for the others.
Elevated CRP levels have a very damaging effect on myelin sheaths in the brain, which insulate and protect nerves and signaling pathways. Studies done on the correlation between weight and cognitive performance showed a definite impairment in the performance of obese individuals. As their conditions worsened, so did cognitive ability.
Vitamin E supplementation reduces inflammation by inhibiting production of CRPs and may even help in weight loss for these individuals by controlling inflammation and disease progression. Studies show that cognitive ability rapidly improves as weight is lost and CRP levels decrease, suggesting that vitamin E supplementation may help to protect the brain from a multitude of neurological diseases as well.
About the Author: Phil Le Breton is owner at Wholesale Nutrition. He has a strong interest in helping people achieve greater brain and body health with vitamins and supplements, with an emphasis on vitamin C powder. Wholesale Nutrition has provided the world with the best vitamin C and wholesale vitamins since 1970. Visit http://www.nutri.com to buy high-quality discount vitamins today!
Sources:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/1502/title/Food_for_Thought__Vitamin_E_targets_dangerous_inflammation
Reprinting:
This entire article may be reprinted free of charge provided that the “About the Author” section of the article, sources, and all links in the article are included. For shorter quotations, a clear link to the blog post or Wholesale Nutrition is sufficient.
