BACKGROUND: Education in diabetes optimizes metabolic control, prevents acute and chronic complications, and improves quality of life. Our main objective was to evaluate if a better metabolic control is achieved in diabetic patients undergoing a program of intensive interactive care than in those with traditional care and written information. METHODS: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), aged 20-60 years, education level at least of primary school, serum creatinine ≤ 2.5 mg/dl, self-sufficient and HbA1c ≥ 7.1% were allocated in two groups of education, 1) minimal education (MEG) and 2) full education (FEG). The MEG patients followed predefined diet; FEG patients chose the diet by selecting foods from each group in a list of matches, teaching them to count nutrients, kilocalories (kcal) and percentage of nutrients. RESULTS: A follow-up of 31 patients in each group was obtained. The proportion of patients who had initial adherence was 13.33% in the MEG group and 9.67% in the FEG group while, at the end of the study, these percentages were of 73.3% and 58.38% respectively. The final HbA1c decreased in both groups, with or without good adherence. The FEG group had a higher decline in the values of cholesterol (p = 0.036) and LDL (p = 0.002) than the MEG group. CONCLUSION: Education programs in T2DM contribute to a decrease in HbA1c within six months, but an intensive program is more effective in reducing cholesterol and LDL.

Herbal medicine represents an alternative for treating dyslipidemia. It has been probed that aerial part of Eryngium heterophyllum, a species of medicinal plant that belongs to the family Apiaceae, reduces cholesterol by 27% in rats. On the other hand, Amphipterygium adstringens, a Mexican tree exerts a significant hypocholesterolemic effect on rats, lowering cholesterol levels by 31%. The aim of this project was to evaluate the PC-300 tea (Eryngium heterophyllum egelm + Amphipterygium adstringens) against hypertriglyceridemia. It was a non-randomized, descriptive, prospective, longitudinal, and comparative clinical study. Voluntary subjects were assigned sequentially into two treatment groups: 1) fibrate (bezafibrate) 200 mg/day, and 2) PC-300 tea, one cup half an hour before eating. Baseline samples of serum total cholesterol and triglycerides were obtained and measured again after 1 month of treatment. There were 17 patients (males: 6, females: 11) treated with the tea, with a mean age of 49 ± 15 years, and 17 patients (males: 8, females: 9) treated with bezafibrate, with a mean age of 44.7 ± 13 years. In the first group, the percentage of triglyceride reduction was 19.7% (p ≤ 0.05), while in the second group, this was 44.8% (p ≤ 0.001). We conclude that consumption of PC-300 reduces triglyceride levels an average of 20% after 1 month.