At Wal-Mart yesterday I bought a box of Spring Valley Diabetes Nutrition Daily Packs.
Each pack contains six pills:
Chromium
Selenium
Vitamin C
Alpha Lipoic Acid/Green Tea
Multi Vitamin with Lutein
Folic Acid
Is taking these a good idea or did I just waste my money?
Mandy,
I have taken those before but I talked to my doctor yesterday about a multi vitamin and he told me just to take centrum.
Cody
Most physicians have little to no education and training when it comes to nutrition unfortunately. I’m blessed with a physician with a subspeciality of nutrition who prescribes specific vitamins, minerals and supplements for her diabetic patients.
ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid) in particular has been well-studied for treatment of diabetic neuropathy.
Sarah
type 2 since 1/2007; a1c as of 9/17 - 5.2%.
Mandy,
The doses of ALA which were tested and shown to have an impact on neuropathy were enormous intravenous doses. The testing was done in Germany. Probably 100 times what is in the pill you are taking. Some people find it helps, but they are again, taking a lot. Usually the Extended release form from Jarrow, if I recall correctly. But recently Dr. Bernstein who originally posted that it was helpful, said that for most of his patients it doesn’t seem to do much.
Chromium affects blood sugar ONLY if you are chromium deficient which most Americans are not.
Dr. Bernstein says that taking too much vitamin C turns it into a oxidant, not an antioxidant. A modest dose can’t hurt, but it isn’t the magic potion that some people would have you think it is.
Folic acid can’t hurt.
Vitamin D may be helpful. I’ve started taking 1000 IU at my endo’s suggestion and it seems to have some effect on insulin sensitivity. If you take it, take Calcium and Magnesium with it.
I have probably bought every (expensive) supplement you can buy since my diagnosis in 1998. It got to where my Other Half would collapse into helpless laughter every time I came home from the health food store, and say, “They got you again!!!”.
I ended up taking the cheap Wal-Mart vitamin for old folks. Then I read about how all the vitamines are coming out of China and that scared me into taking none. The Vitamin E and Calcium are all I’m taking right now.
We all wish there were some Magic Beans we could eat that would fix stuff, and there are a lot of folks out there willing to get rich satisfying that yearning of ours!