Diabetes Care: 30 years of long-term follow-up studies, eating more folic acid at a young age may reduce the risk of diabetes!

The high prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is now a serious public health problem worldwide.
According to the China Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Type 2 Diabetes, there are 114.4 million people with diabetes in China, ranking first in the world, and the incidence of type 2 diabetes among adults over 18 years of age has reached 10.4%.
previous studies have found that high homocysteineemia associated with insulin resistance (IR) is one of the risk factors for T2DM, and is mostly caused by genetic defects, renal insemination or insufficient intake of vitamins such as folic acid.
some randomized clinical trials have reported that folic acid supplementation improves IR and lowers levels of inflammatory media.
leads to speculation that vitamins such as folic acid may have a beneficial effect on the risk and treatment of T2DM.
On July 31, 2020, researchers from Columbia University Irvine Medical Center and Texas State University published the latest study in the top journal Diabetes Care on the association between folic acid and vitamin intake and diabetes, finding a negative correlation between folic acid and vitamin B6 intake and the prevalence of diabetes, which may be due to folic acid's involvement in regulating high cysteine levels, insulin sensitivity, and systemic inflammation.
researchers recruited a total of 4,704 participants between the ages of 18 and 30 who did not have diabetes from four different locations in the United States, with 52 percent of women.
follow-up for up to 30 years, during which folic acid and vitamin B6 and B12 intake were assessed through dietary surveys, and covariate information such as height, weight, smoking status, family history of diabetes was counted.
In addition, participants' glucose, insulin, glycated hemoglobin HbA1c, inflammatory markers, hemocysteine cysteine Hcy, express and non-empty blood sugar were regularly measured to assess the correlation between vitamin intake such as folic acid and diabetes, inflammation, etc.
follow-up period, a total of 655 cases of diabetes occurred.
According to the distribution of participants' vitamin B intake, it was divided into 50 percentiles, and the relationship between vitamin B intake and diabetes incidence was analyzed using Cox proportional risk regression model, and it was found that folic acid intake was negatively related to the incidence of diabetes, and the risk of diabetes with the highest kg of folic acid intake was reduced by 30% compared with the lowest folic acid intake after covariance adjustment.
vitamin B6 intake was also significantly negatively associated with the incidence of diabetes, with a risk ratio of 0.64 for the highest thousandths of a person.
there was no significant correlation between vitamin B12 intake and diabetes prevalence.
in order to explore the potential mechanism of ingestion of folic acid for diabetes, the researchers analyzed folic acid intake and serum Hcy, The relationship between biomarkers of IR (on-anthrine blood sugar levels, insulin levels, insulin resistance scores (HOMA-IR) and islet beta cell function index (HOMA-b), as well as systemic inflammation (CRP, fibroprotein and IL-6).
results showed a significant negative correlation between folic acid intake and Hcy and insulin levels, inversely compared with CRP concentrations, and inverse correlation with on-anthrin blood sugar, HOMA-IR, HOMA-b, fibroprotein and IL-6 levels.
this leads to speculation that the negative correlation between folic acid and the risk of diabetes may be explained by the insulin sensitivity of folic acid, the promotion of Hcy metabolism, or the involvement in the regulation of inflammation. In short,
folic acid intake and multivariate-adjusted MDs for homocysteine, insulin, and CRP found that increasing folic acid intake significantly reduced the risk of diabetes through 30 years of monitoring and explored its potential mechanisms of action.
this discovery provides a new type of diabetes prevention strategy, for the sake of health, remember to eat more fruits and vegetables rich in folic acid and vitamin B Oh!