Background: This study was performed to assess the prevalence of dry eye syndrome and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in type 2 diabetic patients and their contributing factors.

No abstract

To compare the antihypertensive effectiveness of sour tea (ST; Hibiscus sabdariffa) with black tea (BT) infusion in diabetic patients, this double-blind randomized controlled trial was carried out. Sixty diabetic patients with mild hypertension, without taking antihypertensive or antihyperlipidaemic medicines, were recruited in the study. The patients were randomly allocated to the ST and BT groups and instructed to drink ST and BT infusions two times a day for 1 month. Their blood pressure (BP) was measured on days 0, 15 and 30 of the study. The mean of systolic BP (SBP) in the ST group decreased from 134.4 ± 11.8 mm Hg at the beginning of the study to 112.7 ± 5.7 mm Hg after 1 month (P-value o0.001), whereas this measure changed from 118.6 ± 14.9 to 127.3 ± 8.7 mm Hg (P-value ¼ 0.002) in the BT group during the same period. The intervention had no statistically significant effect on the mean of diastolic BP (DBP) in either the ST or BT group. The mean pulse pressure (PP) of the patients in the ST group decreased from 52.2±12.2 to 34.5±9.3 mm Hg (P-value o0.001) during the study, whereas in the BT group, it increased from 41.9 ± 11.7 to 47.3 ± 9.6 mm Hg (P-value ¼ 0.01). In conclusion, consuming ST infusion had positive effects on BP in type II diabetic patients with mild hypertension. This study supports the results of similar studies in which antihypertensive effects have been shown for ST.

The results of the present study showed that ST has a significant effect on blood lipid profile in patients with diabetes.

Our finding showed that while opium might decrease blood glucose temporarily, it had no clear and long-lasting effects on blood glucose, as it had no significant effect on HbA1c.