You already know that eating a balanced diet is key to maintaining healthy blood sugar levels and a healthy weight. New research suggests, however, that one vitamin hold the key to new diabetes treatments. This is how vitamin A may lead to new diabetes treatments.
The Research
In a recent study, researchers have discovered that cells that are responsible for secreting insulin, beta cells, may be in danger of being destroyed because of a vitamin A deficiency. These beta cells have vitamin A receptors on the surface, called GPRC5C.
The research team tried blocking GPRC5C in mice. They removed the ability of vitamin A to bind to these cells with interesting results. The researchers found that the cell’s ability to secrete insulin was minimized in response to sugar.
So, they tried again. But this time on human samples. The samples tested were both from healthy and type 2 diabetes patients. The resulting data was similar to the test done on the mice. Researchers found that the beta cells’ insulin-secreting ability diminished by almost 30 percent.
Consequently, the researchers conclude that there may be a link between the vitamin not communicating the beta cells and diabetes. Especially since impaired insulin secretion is one of the major causes of type 2 diabetes.
Further findings suggest that in beta cells, a reduced ability to stave off inflammation can be because of a lack of vitamin A. While beta cells will die off if there is a complete deficiency of vitamin A. This leads researchers to believe that this vitamin is also instrumental in type 1 diabetes, too.
While experts stress that increasing vitamin A intake through supplements can have risky side effects, dietary consumption of vitamin A should be safe to do. In the meantime, the scientific community is researching ways to target GPRC4C that do not have the side effects linked with vitamin A.
Final Thoughts
While it is true that vitamin A may lead to new diabetes treatments, it is too risky to start loading up on vitamin A supplements. Just make your daily dietary plan continues to be well-balanced, you should consume vitamin A as a natural part of your meals.
