Supplements research - some good news

Chromium has been known about for many years, but it is only effectuve if you are deficient in it in your diet, The effect is quite quick so you don't need to use it for a prolonged period. Agree that the picolinate form is more effective.

Beware of overdosing on Vitamin E. There was a fad to guzzle 1000mg caps like sweeties , and it made people quite ill. The upper limit is 1000mg a day. Increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke and premature death when used to excess.

I have heard of CoQ10 but never tried it, safety trials show that upper limit is 1200 mg per day, Generally considered safe. Seems too expensive for my pocket anyway especially for the small effect it gices.

One supplement they have not included is magnesium, which again has an inital effect if you are deficient, but tails off when you are up to level. The chelated form is most effective, and can often come paired with zinc which is also useful.

German diabetics can get ALA on scrip, It has to be the R-ALA variant not the left handed one or the mixed ones, If it just says ALA then its the mixed ones. Generally safe, but overdose has been known to cause death.

EllieM said:

That's interesting, though without access to the actual study that is summarised it's impossible to judge the quality of the results. (Normally if you read the full study you get references to the source studies.)

Also, in the interests of clarity for those using hba1c in mmol/mol and bgs in mmol/L , ie converting from DCCT to IFCC units, an improvement of hba1c of 0.25% is about 3 mmol/mol and 18mg/dL is 1 mmol/L

Maybe @Oldvatr has a comment????

(EDited to add, I see you did while I was posting )

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Commenting as invited. The reference numbers in the text are active links out to the relevant papers.
Here is the chromium one:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33783683/

The problem with this study, as they themselves point out, is that they are not comparing like for like. This is very important when going to different countries and . or different continents. There will be national effects like different diets, differing standards of care, different levels of affluence and affordbility. Also the question of ethneticity may come into play. even religion can affect the outcomes wrt smoking, coffee drinking, alcohol consumption, recreational drug use / narcotics, fasting. Some diets may be deficient, but others may not be, Some drugs available in the western hemisphere can affect CoQ10 levels but these are not used in the east.

Oldvatr said:

The problem with this study, as they themselves point out, is that they are not comparing like for like. This is very important when going to different countries and . or different continents. There will be national effects like different diets, differing standards of care, different levels of affluence and affordbility. Also the question of ethneticity may come into play. even religion can affect the outcomes wrt smoking, coffee drinking, alcohol consumption, recreational drug use / narcotics, fasting. Some diets may be deficient, but others may not be, Some drugs available in the western hemisphere can affect CoQ10 levels but these are not used in the east.

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This is interesting. Thank you. With several autoimmune diseases, severe low energy is an issue for me. I started taking Ubiquinol (CoQ10 in most accessible form says pharmacist), a few months ago. Change made in isolation. I noticed a definite improvement. Still new here but after several weeks keeping my BGs in mostly 5 and 6 (Oz - is that m mol?). I do feel better. When I hit even high 4s - a huge issue. Might even faint. Don’t reach for sugar to cure that now. Seems unpredictable at times. I’ve been reading about Berberine and Gymna sp. as natural ways to control BG. Wondering if these (or one?) and CoQ10 ok together plse? Would taking all 3 be ok?