Since I have had Type 2 diabetes I have spent many hours trawling the Internet to find out what it's all about .
Insulin isn't the only show in town when you look at Glucose elimination from the blood , as well as Insulin which as far as I can work out transports glucose around the body and takes any excess to muscles and liver to be converted into Glycogen which is stored until needed .
The second mechanism is exercise , which "burns" glucose to produce the energy to keep us going . which is why going for a jog is good for diabetics .
The third mechanism , which when I take Benfotamine seems to account for half of my blood glucose sugar , is called the " pentose phosphate Pathway " it doesn't seem to register on GPs Radar , BUT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT ! .
The " pentose phosphate Pathway " cannot proceed without Vitamin B1 to catalyse it .This process the " pentose phosphate Pathway " is VITAL as it produces NADPH
One of the uses of NADPH in the cell along with other compounds called catalase and superoxide dismutase is to prevent oxidative stress. It reduces glutathione via glutathione reductase, which converts reactive H2O2 into H2O by glutathione peroxidase. If absent, more H2O2 would be converted to hydroxyl free radicals by Fenton chemistry, which can attack the cell. When it attacks the cell it trashes it causing Neoropathy , retinopathy and nephropathy !
Remember NADPH can't be produced without Vitamin B1 , if you have a deficiency of BI this seems to be the first process to shut down , It would seem that diabetics type 1 and type 2 have a deficiency of B1 . this deficiency is caused by either an inability to absorb normal B1 or rapid flushing of B1 from diabetic people
It seems to me that this could be the cause of type 2 diabetes , imagine the scenario as this , you can't absorb B1 or it disappears rapidly from your body , the " pentose phosphate Pathway " shuts down , this leads to an excess of blood glucose , enter Insulin , insulin production is ramped up to take care of the excess glucose , BUT continually ramping up insulin levels leads to failure of insulin production or failure of the body to recognise the insulin .
THERE IS ALSO A DOUBLE WHAMMY HERE , adequate supply of B1 is necessary to convert Vitamin B12 as it's absorbed by the body into methyl B12 which is the form in which it is used by the body , so what ? B12 is an integral part of a good myelin sheath on nerves ! not enough B1 which builds nerves leads to a B12 deficiency which also builds nerves , result neuropathy !
If you can absorb ordinary B12 but you have Neuropathy , stop caffeine and alcohol as they stop it being absorbed and take a high vitamin B supplement which should help , if you can't absorb B1 take Benfotiamine and also initially Methyl B12
Also remember benfotiamine will reduce your blood sugar naturally , so you may need to lower your insulin intake or if you are on the dreaded metformin , consider stopping it while you trial Benfotaimine
