Vitamin K1 may have diabetes benefits: study

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Vitamin K1 may have diabetes benefits: study

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By Stephen Daniells

29-Sep-2008 -

 

 

Supplements of vitamin K1 may reduce the development of insulin resistance

in older men, and thereby offer protection against diabetes, suggests a new

study.

 

 

Insulin resistance, whereby insufficient insulin is released to produce a

normal glucose response from fat, muscle and liver cells, was significantly

lower in men following a daily _vitamin K_

(http://www.nutraingredients.com/content/search?SearchText=Vitamin+K) 1

supplement, according to results of a

36-month, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.

The results are published online ahead of print in the journal _Diabetes_

(http://www.nutraingredients.com/content/search?SearchText=diabetes) Care.

An estimated 19 million people are affected by diabetes in the EU 25, equal

to four per cent of the total population. This figure is projected to

increase to 26 million by 2030.

In the US, there are almost 24 million people with diabetes, equal to seven

per cent of the population. The total costs are thought to be as much as $174

billion, with $116 billion being direct costs from medical expenditures,

according to 2007 American Diabetes Association figures.

The researchers, led by Sarah Booth from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition

Research Center at Tufts University, recruited 355 non-diabetic men and

women between the ages of 60 and 80. Sixty per cent of the participants were

women. The participants were randomly assigned to receive a daily vitamin K1

supplement (500 micrograms per day of phylloquinone) or placebo for 36 months.

The main

There are two main forms of vitamin K: phylloquinone, also known as

phytonadione, (vitamin K1) and menaquinones (vitamins K2). K1 is found in green

leafy

vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli and spinach, and makes up about 90 per

cent of the vitamin K in a typical Western diet; while K2, which makes up

about 10 per cent of Western vitamin K consumption and can be synthesised in the

gut by microflora.

 

At the end of the study, Booth and co-workers report that the benefits of

vitamin K1 supplementation were different between the sexes. Indeed, only men

were found to benefit, said the researchers. Amongst the male participants, a

statistically significant reduction in insulin resistance was observed in

those receiving the daily phylloquinone supplement, compared to placebo.

Vitamin K already linked to diabetes

Previously, researchers from America, Canada and Britain reported in the

journal Cell that vitamin K may have an effect on diabetes development via the

vitamin K-dependant protein osteocalcin. The study with mice looked at genes

that operate primarily in the bone cells that are linked to glucose

metabolism.

By " knocking out " these genes in mice so that they could not function, the

animals lacking a functional osteocalcin gene gained fat, showing that

osteocalcin helps regulate the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas and

release it into the bloodstream.

These osteocalcin deficient mice also became glucose intolerant. Both

conditions are considered " pre-diabetic. "

Osteocalcin was also shown to signal fat cells to release a hormone called

adiponectin that increases insulin sensitivity (Cell, 2007 Vol. 130, pp.

456-469).

Source: Diabetes Care

Published online ahead of print 12 August 2008, doi: 10.2337/dc08-1204

" Effect of vitamin K supplementation on insulin resistance in older men and

women "

Authors: M. Yoshida, P.F. Jacques, J.B. Meigs, E. Saltzman, M.K. Shea, C.

Gundberg, B. Dawson-Hughes, G. Dallal, S.L. Booth

 

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