Vanadium (V) is a chemical element located in the d-block of the periodic table as part of the transition metals. Vanadium exists as a trace metal in both plants and animals and vastly abundant in Earth’s crust and sea water. This Vanadium has become a big issue over past decades as it could possibly replace the usage of insulin as to treat diabetes mellitus (DM).
Image from Wikipedia.
Vanadium mimics insulin. Just like insulin, vanadium lowers glucose level in the blood, improves insulin sensitivity and normalizes liver enzyme activities. However, insulin has couple drawbacks as it must be injected as it is a protein and gets digested in our stomachs before our bodies absorb. Unlike insulin, vanadium can be orally taken as metals without getting digested in the stomach and can be readily absorbed through the guts solving the discomfort of injecting insulin.
Moreover, vanadium is safe. According to an article, doses of up to 400 mg per day is even in the safe level where the recommended dose for a patient is 100-150 per day. In general, the toxicity of vanadium is very low. A study denote most of the toxic effects of vanadium result from local irritation of the eyes and upper respiratory tract rather than systemic toxicity.
Not only vanadium is used for diabetes treatment, but also for cancer and and bone formations. Although clinical data and researches are lacking, laboratory studies on human cells demonstrate that vanadium could help promote apoptosis and suppress the growth of cancerous tumours. Furthermore, tests on animals and human cells suggest that vanadium may promote osteogenesis.
We do not completely know the virtue of vanadium due to lacking experiments and testing. But many papers and researches have proved vanadium is safe and efficient which could potentially replace the use of insulin in the future.
This is a youtube video of a pharmacist explaining why vanadium is important.
Sung Eun Kim
