Vitamin C: Important for Diabetics

Vitamin C: The Well-being Nutrient
Excerpt from: Syndrome X
Authors: Jack Challem, Burton Berkson, M.D., Ph.D., Melissa Diane Smith

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, plays diverse roles in health and disease prevention. It protects against Syndrome X, diabetes, and their accompanying disorders in many different ways. It works most directly by blocking many of the deleterious effects of elevated glucose and insulin.

In addition, as a powerful antioxidant, vitamin C quenches free radicals generated by glucose and other sources, such as immune cells. In doing so, it reduces the free-radical damage that contributes to heart disease, cancer, and other age-related degenerative diseases. One sign of severe vitamin C deficiency is a tendency toward bruising–common in diabetes–caused by collagen-weak blood-vessel walls leaking blood into surrounding tissues.

HOW VITAMIN C IMPROVES GLUCOSE TOLERANCE

· It lowers glucose.
· It normalizes insulin’s response to glucose,
· It neutralizes free radicals.
· It reduces glycosylated hemoglobin.

VITAMIN C’S BENEFICIAL EFFECTS ON THE HEART

· Decreases total cholesterol
· Lowers the bad LDL cholesterol
· Raises the good HDL cholesterol
· Enables blood vessels to relax
· Lowers blood pressure
· Controls free-radical activity and damage
· Reduces the risk of blood clots

VITAMIN C’S BENEFICIAL EFFECTS ON IMMUNITY

· Vitamin C boosts the activity of immune cells, so they do a better job of fighting bacteria    and viruses.
· Vitamin C helps the body maintain homeostasis so infections are fewer and less severe.
· Vitamin C helps clean up excess free radicals, which the immune system uses to fight germs.