In a recent breakthrough the scientists at Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center have found that prescribing vitamin C with insulin is linked with the stopping of damage caused by type 1 diabetes.
When used alone neither of the two produced results, while when vitamin C was taken in combination with insulin produced encouraging results. Insulin controlled the blood sugar while as Vitamin C stopped the damage caused to blood vessels by the diabetes who had poor glucose levels.
The results have also been published in the Journal of clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
"We had tested this theory on research models, but this is the first time anyone has shown the therapy's effectiveness in people," said Mr. Michael Ihnat, Ph.D., who is the principal investigator and also a pharmacologist Department of Cell Biology at the OU College of Medicine.
The scientists are now studying if the same could be beneficial for the patients suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Insulin has been used to control the blood sugar in patients suffering from diabetes but it doesn't stop the damage caused to the blood vessels by the disease. Inhat and British Scientists from the University of Warwick are studying the endothelial dysfunction which is associated with most of the forms of Cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases and reral failures due to diabetes.
By reducing the damage caused by the disease patients can get relief from some of the painful complications of this disease which include heart attack, amputation, kidney disease, blindness etc.
Ihnat had earlier discovered that the diabetic cells have memory that causes damage to continue even when the blood glucose is under control, however they loose the memory by adding some antioxidants like Vitamin C with Insulin.
"We have speculated that this happens with endothelial dysfunction, but we did not know until now if it was effective in humans. We finally were able to test it and proved it to be true," Ihnat said.
"For patients with diabetes, this means simply getting their glucose under control is not enough. An antioxidant-based therapy combined with glucose control will give patients more of an advantage and lessen the chance of complications with diabetes," the expert added.
Reasearchers suggest that patients with diabetes should increase the intake of antioxidants and vitamin C however they also say that further studies are needed in this field.
