Zinc + Multimineral Supplement May Improve Glycemic Control & Lipid Levels in Adult Diabetics

Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes are omnipresent in today's food-abundance. Healthy, wholesome and nutrient dense foods, on the other hand are either rare or people are just too lazy to obtain them. Thus, it is no wonder that researchers found that mineral supplementation will benefit people with onset or full-blown diabetes.

Table 1: Nutrient composition of the preparation for the MVM/Z group (Gunasekara. 2011)

In their study, Gunasekara et al. (Gunasekara. 2011) investigated the effect of 4 months of either oral multivitamin/mineral plus zinc sulfate (22 mg/day) (MVM/Z, cf. Table 1) or multivitamin/mineral supplementation alone on blood glucose (fasting and postprandial) and glycosylated hemoglobin (Hb_A1C%) and serum levels of zinc, creatinine, and lipids.

The zinc+MVM group had a mean change of fasting blood sugar -0.33 mmol/L (standard error of the mean 0.21 mmol/L) and was significant (P = 0.05) when compared with the other two groups (mean change in the MVM group +0.19 (0.31) mmol/L and +0.43 (0.23) mmol/L in the control group, respectively). The Hb_A1C% level reduced significantly, irrespective of the baseline level, in zinc+MVM-supplemented individuals. In the other two groups, the change of Hb_A1C% level was not significant. Serum lipid levels reduced significantly in the zinc+MVM and MVM groups.

Overall, the addition of 22mg elemental zinc (as zinc sulfate) triggered profound changes to the effect of the multivitamin/mineral formula, on the basis of which the scientists conclude "zinc, either alone or in combination with other known antioxidant minerals and vitamins, may have supplementary benefits in the routine management of adult diabetes."