The effects of Chlorella supplementation on glycemic control, lipid profile and anthropometric measures on patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Abstract

Diabetes is a chronic disease and the prevalence of it is rapidly increasing. Recently, the use of natural products in chronic diseases such as diabetes has gained more attention. Chlorella, a single-celled green alga, is one of them. There have been some studies on the effects of chlorella supplementation in chronic diseases such as NAFLD, prediabetes, and diabetic mice, but none of them examined the effects of chlorella in patients with T2DM. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of chlorella supplementation on glycemic control, lipid profile, and anthropometric indices in type 2 diabetic patients. This study is a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. 84 patients with T2DM assigned into two groups, receiving 1500mg/day C. vulgaris or placebo for 8weeks. Anthropometric information, blood pressure, 24-h food intake recall, and blood samples were collected at the beginning and end of the study to determine the changes of FBS, HbA1c, insulin concentration, insulin resistance, and lipid profile. None of the variables investigated in this study showed a significant change after 8weeks of intervention with C. vulgaris. According to the findings of this study, supplementation with C. vulgaris with a dosage of 1500mg/day for 8weeks, does not improve the anthropometric measurements, glycemic status, and lipid profile as well. Thus, it cannot be considered as a complementary therapeutic approach to common medications at this dosage and duration. However, future studies with a higher dosage of C. vulgaris and more prolonged than 8weeks are needed to be done.