Singing the Praises of Vanadium
It is not hard to find people singing the praises of vanadium for diabetes. Since 1980 there have been hundreds of clinical studies showing the benefits of vanadium in
Duplicating the results of insulin
in a much nicer way!
A question posed to author John Walsh, CDE, asked…
“I’ve read several web sites that claim that Vanadyl Sulfate (Vanadium) has a significant effect on lowering blood glucose levels. One web site claims that Vanadyl Sulfate actually mimics insulin and that after five months some people have been cured completely of their diabetes. Is there any support to these claims in the medical arena that you know of? This sounds too good to be true!”
John’s answer, in part, was…
“Vanadium, along with its heavier cousins, molybdenum and tungsten, can mimic insulin. In other words, in research done with cells, these minerals have literally been able to replace insulin.” (Emphasis ours.)
Dr. Whitaker, head of one of the foremost clinics to treat diabetes, says,
“In my opinion, the single most effective and intriguing weapon for combating diabetes is the mineral vanadium.”
Those are exciting words! The positive effects of vanadium are impressive. Vanadium can improve sensitivity to insulin in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. (As a bonus, it has also been shown in human studies to have some ability to lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure.)
Singing the Blues of Vanadium
With all the studies and real life excellent results, how could there be any negative studies? Yet, if you have looked at all, you will find as many “studies” with negative results as the studies with good results!
What’s going on??? Isn’t truth, truth? Well, it is – unless you mix it with money and profits!
There are billions of dollars riding on pharmaceutical drugs with diabetes. Many drug companies are more than willing to fund studies to discourage the enemy (competition).
And there are plenty of researchers willing to sell their soul for money. Tobacco companies did it “proving” smoking didn’t harm people. Unfortunately, it can also kill people (is that legal murder)?
We have seen two major ways researchers can produce the results drug companies want. In reading the studies, it is common to see them:
- Use far more Vanadium than needed. Then, of course, most anything will have negative effects. Five pounds of Vitamin A, magnesium, selenium – or vanadium – can kill a rat as well as rat poison can.
- Keep the study Then it doesn’t have the time vanadium needs to produce results.
By these methods, they have managed to cast doubt on vanadium – even as several of the drug companies are hastily developing vanadium drugs to sell.
And the Verdict Is…
To our knowledge, the largest and most successful natural diabetic clinic is Dr. Julian Whitaker’s in S. California. He has treated thousands of people – and vanadium is part of it.
We recommend it also. However, we have decided to leave vanadium out of our Dia-Mazing supplement because of the concern some still have. However, we are making it available as a separate product for those who wish to add it to our protocol plan.
First Bonus: Use Less
Because of the additional nutrients we use in Dia-Mazing, people are able to use less than half the usual 100-150 mg vanadium dosage many recommend.
Second Bonus: Antioxidant Boosters
Dr. Franco Cavaleri says it is important to use the reduced form, vanadyl sulfate, instead of vanadate. This is what glutathione reduces vanadium to in the digestive system before absorption. This is very important because the factor promoting toxicity is oxidative stress – free radicals. The vanadyl sulfate form has been shown not to compete with the phosphate-transport proteins or amino-acid dispersal.1
When vanadium is oxidized to its vanadate form by free radicals, it can be toxic. However, vanadyl sulfate isn’t catabolic – as many previous studies have concluded. The trick to supplementing vanadyl sulfate safely and more effectively for insulin control is to use it with glutathione boosters such as NAC and alpha lipoic acid. (We have 280 mg of NAC and 600 mg of ALA in our protocol.)
Third Bonus: Restoration
Type II diabetes and insulin resistance often go undetected until they reach advanced states. Avoiding early stages of insulin resistance and diabetes is critical to general disease prevention and anti-aging. Vanadyl sulfate has been shown to undo completely the damage in the cell membrane that results in insulin resistance and Type II diabetes.
Reincorporation of these transporters into the insulin-responsive cell membranes reestablishes normal insulin responsiveness. Its activity isn’t stimulatory but more like a reconstruction of the normal regulatory system. It actually promotes reconstruction of the functional system that might have broken down.
Research commencing in 1984 at the University of British Columbia by Dr. John H. McNeill, et al, showed that oral VS could eliminate diabetes in rats, seemingly reversing the condition and “normalizing” insulin sensitivity.2
Fortunately, an individual with normal insulin function is not affected negatively by the amounts of vanadium recommended. So, vanadium supplementation as an occasional membrane reset, as we’ll see, is a great preventive strategy!
Fourth Bonus: Lasting Effects
Restoration research also explains how the normalized activity stays in place after the vanadyl sulfate dosage is stopped. Vanadium administration was associated with increased glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity which was still noted 2 weeks after cessation of vanadium
References
- Franco Cavaleri, Vanadium and vanadyl amino acid complexes (US Patent) Publication number US20130323324 A1, Application number, US 13/907,866, Publication date Dec 5, 2013.
- Lucy Marzban 1 , Roshanak Rahimian 2 , Roger W. Brownsey, and John H. McNeill Mechanisms by which Bis(Maltolato)Oxovanadium(IV) Normalizes Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase and Glucose-6-Phosphatase Expression in Streptozotocin-Diabetic Rats in Vivo Accepted: August 29, 2002.