Micronutrients such as niacin, magnesium, calcium, zinc, carnitine, inositol, alpha-lipoic acid, as well as vitamins E, B6 and D all play an important role in the prevention and management of patients with diabetes.
Though diabetes is a serious disease and is often caused by autoimmune processes - with the right treatment - living a longer, healthier life can be made easier.
The Role Of Miccronutrients In Diabetic Health
Vitamin E - Confers protection against diabetes by protecting pancreatic B-cells from 
oxidativestress induced damage; May prevent progression of type I diabetes.
Vitamin D - Lowers risk of type I and 2 diabetes; Suppresses inflammation of pancreatic B-cells. Vitamin D receptor gene linked to diabetes.
Vitamin B3 - Preserves B-cell function in type I diabetics; Part of GTF (glucose tolerance factor) which facilitates insulin binding.
Vitamin B12 - Deficiency common in diabetics because metformin depletes B12.
Chromium - Helps insulin attach to cell's receptors increasing glucose uptake into cell; Deficiency can cause insulin resistance; Supplementation trials show dose-dependent benefits for type II diabetics.
Biotin - Stimulates glucose-induced insulin secretion in pancreatic B-cells; High dose biotin can improve glycemic control in diabetics.
Magnesium - Deficiency reduces insulin sensitivity; Low magnesium exacerbates foot ulcers in diabetics.
Zinc - Needed in the synthesis, storage and secretion of insulin; Protects pancreatic B-cells from damage; Affects the expression of genes linked to diabetes.
Lipoic Acid - Enhances glucose uptake in skeletal muscle tissue; Improves glucose tolerance in type 2 diabetics; very effective treatment for diabetic neuropathy.
Glutathione & Cysteine - Glutathione-containing enzymes protect B-cells which are particularly sensitive to oxidative stress; Type 2 diabetics have abnormal antioxidant status; Supplementation with the glutathione precursor cysteine restores antioxidant status. Glutathione is very helpful with modulating inflammation cascades so common in autoimmune processes.
Coenzyme Q10 - Protects kidney from diabetes related damage; Improves glycemic control in type 2 diabetics.
Glutamine - Stimulates a hormone called GLP-I (glucagon-like peptide I) that regulates insulin secretion after meals; Improves insulin signaling and sensitivity.
Carnitine - Reduces and even prevents pain from diabetic neuropathy; Improves insulin sensitivity by increasing glucose uptake and storage.
Inositol - Evidence suggests that inositol may be effective in treating diabetic neuropathy.
Vitamin C - Lowers glycolysated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting and post-meal glucose levels and in type 2 diabetics.
Thanks goes out to Spectracell for their ongoing committment to providing effective testing that helps clinicians, such as myself, get to the root of our patient's chronic health challenges. I personally use Spectracell Micronutrient Testing as part of my investigation to determine the quantitative nutritional status of my patients. By knowing what foods and nutritional supplements can provide the nutrients a patient needs repletion with so their physiology works better, is an effective strategy for assisting in health recovery at Johnson Chiropractic Neurology & Nutrition.
To assess a copy of the flyer which illustrates the interaction of micronutrients and their effect on patients' diabetes click here:
If you found value in this article, please use the social sharing icons at the top of this post and please share with those you know who are still suffering with chronic health challenges or autoimmune issues despite having medical managment. Thank you, help me reach more people so they may regain their zest for living!
All the best – Dr. Johnson – Digging Deeper To Find Solutions
If you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia you need to be sure all the issues underlying the disorder are being addressed. One of those issues is nutrient deficiency. Most fibromyalgia patients are on several medications and I have had one patient who was on 17 medications!
Did you know that medications always cause nutrient deficiencies? It's true. So if you are on any medications you should find out what deficiencies you have. One particularly effective way to detect nutrient deficiency is with SpectraCell Micronutrient Testing. I use this special test to help many people find the deficiencies that are holding them back from the vibrant health and energy they long for.
Below is a list of various nutrients that affect a person with Fibromyalgia.
- Carnitine - deficiency causes muscle pain due to inefficient cellular energy metabolism (mitochondrial myopathy) which presents as fibromyalgia.
- Choline & Inositol - altered levels of both nutrients seen in fibromyalgia; choline & inositol are involved in pain perception.
- Serine - blood levels of this amino acid are much lower in fibromyalgia patients.
- Vitamin D - low levels impair neuromuscular function and cause muscle pain. Deficiency is common in fibromyalgia patients.
- Vitamin B1 - Thiamin (B1) deficiency mimics fibromyalgia symptoms including serotonin depletion (decreased paing threshold), a decrease in repair enzymes (muscle soreness) and poor energy production (muscle fatigue).
- Antioxidants - low antioxidant status increases pain in fibromyalgia, which is often considered an oxidative stress disorder.
- Zinc - blood levels of zinc are associated with a number of tender points in fibromyalgic patients.
- Magnesium - involved in pain perception pathways and muscle contraction; treatment with magnesium can improve tenderness and pain.
- Selenium - deficiency is linked to fibromyalgia; in one trial, symptoms improved in 95% of patients supplemented with selenium for at least 4 weeks.
Correcting nutrient deficiencies is one part of a multi-pronged approach I use to help those suffering with fibromyalgia. For more information on my approach, read my Ebook and report on fibromyalgia.
If you have gluten intolerance like I do, you will have nutritional deficiencies. Nutritional deficiencies can lead to a wind up of the immune system thereby worsening autoimmunity and/or the devlopment of additional diseases. Often only iron, sodium and postasium levels are checked on routine blood tests.
You Owe It To Yourself To Get Your Nutrient Levels Checked
Many researchers feel this paltry testing is not comprehensive enough. 
Deficiencies of magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, omega 3 fats, amino acids, glutathione and other important micronutrients are typically lowered with gluten intolerance. This is mainily due initially to increased systemic inflammation, which places a greater burden on the enzymes of detoxification as well as other enzymes.
Chemical reactions in our body are catalyzed by enzymes, and vitamins and minerals are the co-factors that allow enzymes to work. Enzymes cannot function without adequate vitamins. Just as your car cannot work without the ignition key or tires, enzymes are stalled without minerals and vitamins.
One of the best ways to measure vitamins and other micronutrients is through SpectraCell Micronutrient Testing. This patented process resulted from 18 years of research at the University of Texas. The micronutrient test measures the biochemical function of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants, providing me a powerful clinical assessment tool in order to help you recover your health.
Signs of nutritional deficiencies on standard blood tests are high homocysteine levels, high MCV and MCH as well as low iron, potassium, protein and albumin. All these and other markers of body malfunction are easier to detect using functional blood chemistry analysis and can be missed using the typical standard broad average lab ranges. Using functional blood chemistry analysis is an important and unique reason why I often am able to detect earlier signs of health deterioration. Check out the link to my functional blood chemistry analysis page for more information on this topic.
When your body enzymes are less able to function due to nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune processes get a chance to ramp up, leading to additional tissues to be targeted for attack.
"Results: Coeliac patients showed a higher total plasma homocysteine level than the general population, indicative of a poor vitamin status. In accordance, the plasma levels of folate and pyridoxal 5″-phosphate (active form of vitamin B-6) were low in 37% and 20%, respectively, and accounted for 33% of the variation of the total plasma homocysteine level (P < 0.008). The mean daily intakes of folate and vitamin B-12, but not of vitamin B-6, were significantly lower in coeliac patients than in controls.
Conclusions: Half of the adult coeliac patients carefully treated with a gluten-free diet for several years showed signs of a poor vitamin status. This may have clinical implications considering the linkage between vitamin deficiency, elevated total plasma homocysteine levels and cardiovascular disease. The results may suggest that, when following up adults with coeliac disease, the vitamin status should be reviewed."[1]
The bottom line take away message is this: It's not enough to treat the symptoms of an illness or disease. The prudent clinician will look for underlying causes of imbalances in the patients' bodily processes, and work with the patient to regain balance. Often this is accomplished with dietary changes, specific supplementation, lifestyle changes and neurological rehabilitation.
If you are looking for this type of assistance with your health challenge, I am ready to help. I walk the walk and talk the talk because of the things I have learned along the path of my personal health restoring journey.
If you found value in this article, please use the social sharing icons at the top of this post and please share with those you know who are still suffering with low thyroid symptoms despite having medical managment. Thank you, help me reach more people so they may regain their zest for living!
All the best – Dr. Johnson – Digging Deeper To Find Solutions
1. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2002; 16: 1333–1339.
Headlines on the possible risks of vitamin and mineral supplements have bombarded mainstream media recently, and sparked controversy over whether doctors should recommend supplements to their patients.
My intense study of human physiology and nutritional guidance affords the patients who seek my care a low risk to high benefit ratio with nutritional repletion. For many years I have recommended nutritional supplement support for patients with a variety of health challenges, including those with autoimmune disorders. Instead of guessing what supplement to recommend for a particular patient, I've always used biofeedback methods to determine they type and dosage of the supplements.
More recently, I have augmented my biofeedback methods of determining what nutritional support could be of assistance for patients. One such method is SpectraCell micronutrient testing.
SpectraCell’s micronutrient testing quashes the concerns that doctors and patients have regarding purported risks of taking supplements. For the past 18 years, SpectraCell's testing indicates that over 90% of patients have functional micronutrient deficiencies, which compromise immune function and cause disease. Testing nutritional status allows an appropriate, individualized repletion program based on actual deficiencies.
SUMMARY OF PUBLISHED STUDIES HEADLINING POSSIBLE SUPPLEMENT RISKS
Specifically, two reports were published in October, 2011 that raised concerns over supplements. A paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that vitamin E supplements increase the risk of prostate cancer by 17%.1 Critics argue that the vitamin E study was flawed because only one of the eight naturally occurring forms of vitamin E was given, causing an imbalance (alpha vs. gamma tocopherols) that ironically is linked to cancer.3,4
Another widely publicized report in the Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that the incidence of death increased in elderly women taking common supplements such as B vitamins and certain minerals.2 Critics of this study emphasize that actual nutrient levels were never tested and the data was subjective at best, since vitamin levels were estimated from questionnaires. Authors concluded that many commonly used dietary supplements increase mortality, causing such headlines as “your vitamins may be killing you” in mainstream media. The study implies vitamins to be dangerous, when in reality the study reinforces the need for targeted versus blind supplementation.
In both reports, it was mentioned (but not emphasized), that the findings were not based on patients with pre-existing nutrient deficiencies…a caveat ignored by most media stories.
MORE IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER
The “more is better” philosophy can be dangerous when it comes to supplements, since blind supplementation can cause imbalances, create pro-oxidant effects and actually induce deficiencies in other nutrients as a side effect. Micronutrient testing directly measures the functional status of 32 nutrients, plus antioxidant capacity. Since our tests perform a functional cellular analysis on T-cell lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) with a long lifespan relative to other cells, the results give a 4-6 month nutritional history, and are closely indicative of overall immune function as well. With a simple blood draw, you will determine the nutrients in which you are specifically deficient and choose supplements based on your actual deficiencies.
Micronutrient testing is the objective, scientific approach to vitamin and mineral supplementation. For more information, go to www.spectracell.com. Of course you can order SpectraCell micronutrient testing from Dr. Karl R.O.S. Johnson, DC. Just click on the big button below for a special document explaining the test.
Portions of this article courtesy of:
J. Fred Crawford, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, Laboratory Director for SpectraCell Laboratories
References:
1Klein EA ,Thompson IM Jr, Tangen CM et al. Vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). JAMA 2011;306(14):1549-1556.
2Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack LJ et al. Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women: The Iowa Women’s Health Study. Arch Int Med 2011;171(18)1625-1633.
3Helzlsouer KJ, Huang HY, Alberg AJ et al. Association between alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, selenium, and subsequent prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000;92(24):2018-2023.
4Lippman SM, Klein EA, Goodman PJ, et al. Effect of selenium and vitamin E on risk of prostate cancer and other cancers: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). JAMA. 2009;301(1):39-51.