Diabetes is a deadly and disabling disease with many risks and complications, including nerve damage, kidney and eye problems and even heart failure. We are told that these are the inevitable result of not keeping blood sugar levels within strict limits. However a pharmacist, Dr Stuart Lindsey, who suffers from type 2 diabetes himself, believes that many of the complications of diabetes are down to vitamin deficiencies caused by the disease. He has recently published his findings in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.
High levels of sugar in the blood are damaging and one of the effects of this is to stimulate the kidney to excrete vitamin B1 (thiamine) at a much higher rate than normal leading to an acute deficiency of this vitamin.
Beri-beri is the classic thiamine deficiency disease and one of its symptoms is nerve damage that looks very similar to diabetic neuropathy! Other deficiencies have also been found in different studies including vitamin C, vitamin D and all the B group, causing the symptoms of type 2 diabetes such as neuropathy, nephropathy (kidney damage), retinopathy (eye damage)and eventually heart failure.
So why don’t we know about this, and why don’t the Drs suggest taking supplements? Unfortunately the answer is simple – there is no money to be made from supplements so the drug companies prefer to promote their expensive, synthetic products, whether they work or not and Drs get their treatment information from the drug companies!
All diabetics would benefit from supplementing with B vitamins, vitamin C, D and E and minerals such as calcium and magnesium to lessen their problems with insulin and blood sugar and help prevent neuropathy, eye and kidney problems and heart disease.
Taking a high strength multivitamin and mineral supplement and at least 100-150mg of thiamine a day with the other B vitamins will help to minimise the diabetic complications.