A recently published Canadian study has discovered the cellular process that allows vitamin K to protect against diabetes. The discovery opens up new ways to treat and prevent this growing epidemic that affects 415 million people worldwide.
Vitamin K helps with gamma-carboxylation, one of the countless biochemical processes that our cells carry out, turning one substance into another for various functions in the body. Gamma-carboxylation is important to many bodily functions; for example, it produces proteins used in bone formation and blood coagulation.
Researchers are not sure what other roles gamma-carboxylation plays in the body, but they do know that it requires vitamin K. They also know that the enzymes that facilitate this process are present in larger numbers in pancreatic beta cells….