The mineral zinc, may protect diabetics (type 2-adult onset), according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan suggests.
According to Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, a professor of chemistry and of biophysics, amylin, a protein forms dense clumps that shut down insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, and disrupts the body’s ability to control blood sugar levels. Zinc may help prevent this disruption that amylin causes.
Healthy people with normal zinc levels, in the pancreas, this protein helps to regulate blood sugar leves. It’s analog, a chemical compound similar to a nature substance — of amylin called symlin works together with insulin to manage blood sugar levels in diabetics, Ramamoorthy says.
Amylin is helpful because zinc acts to regulate and modify it’s destruction properties. However, when type 2 diabetics are zinc deficient, But in a zinc-starved cellular environment of a patient with type 2 diabetes, amylin is missing a critical regulator to rein it in and it is free to clump together with other amylin molecules, and cause damage.
Source: Journal of Molecular Biology.