This article originally appeared on: www.ksbitv.com/news/46965937.html
Researchers at Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center have found a way to stop damage caused by Type 1 diabetes by using insulin and vitamin C.
Doctors say combining the two helps stop blood vessel damage caused by diabetes in patients who have poor control over their glucose levels.
“I think it’s fabulous that we have people doing this research here because I think it’s something that affects our state in particular,” says Eric Lee, a Type 1 diabetes patient. Lee was diagnosed 15 years ago. He says the research brought forth by Dr. Michael Inhat is important and it’s taught him a crucial lesson.
“What Dr. Inhat’s work means to me when I look at it? It means that I need to do a better job of controlling my blood glucose levels,” says Lee. Stopping the damage could help patients avoid diabetes complications, such as heart disease and blindness. The discovery is a big step in diabetes research, but Inhat cautions that this was a very controlled experiment. “We gave the vitamin C by IV and we gave it over a 24 hour period constantly. That’s just not practical for patients. That said, there may be some practical things patients can do to become more aware of anti-oxidants,” says Inhat.
This is the first time the therapy’s effectiveness has been tested in people. Inhat says there’s more work to be done before patients can simply take a pill, but he hopes the research will help patients start looking into how anti-oxidants, like vitamin C, can help them.
The findings appeared in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Researchers are now studying the therapy in Type 2 diabetes patients.
