Guar Gum in Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus: A Double-Blind Crossover, Placebo-Controlled Trial in Saudi Arabian Patients

Abstract

We conducted a double-blind crossover, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the effects of guar gum, as a food additive, on glycemic control, plasma lipid concentration, and body weight in 39 Saudi patients with non-insulindependent diabetes mellitus. All subjects were overweight and their diabetes was uncontrolled on diet and maximum doses of oral hypoglycemic agents. Mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAl) concentrations after treatment with guar were significantly lower than those seen with placebo (FPG: 11.00 ± 0.42 versus 12.70 ± 0.53 mmol/L; P < 0.01; HbAl: 11.00 ± 0.35% versus 11.90 ± 0.30%, P < 0.05). The postprandial plasma glucose level was also significantly lower when guar was added to an identical test meal than that observed with placebo (P < 0.02). The total plasma cholesterol level decreased from 5.76 ± 0.21 mmol/L prior to treatment to 5.00 ± 0.16 mmol/L (P < 0.01) at the end of treatment. There was no significant change in body weight during either phase of the study. Guar treatment was associated with a higher rate of side-effects in our study than have been previously reported, but this rate declined with time and the drug was well tolerated. We found guar to be a safe, useful, and effective adjunct in the management of patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus that is uncontrolled with conventional therapy.

Should Viscous Fiber Supplements Be Considered in Diabetes Control? Results From a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Figure 1-Flow of the literature.care.diabetesjournals.orgJovanovski and Associates 757 information for calculation (n = 652) (21,25,26,29,35,[37][38][39]41,46,48).…”

The effects of guar gum supplementation on lipid profile in adults: a GRADE-assessed systematic review, meta-regression and dose–response meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials

“…The general characteristics of the included studies are outlined in online Supplementary Table 1. The studies were published between 1980 and 2013 and were carried out in Finland (24,25,30,42,43,47,49,51,52) , USA (23,44,48) , UK (28,29,45,50) , Ireland (46) , Brazil (18) and Saudi Arabia (53) . The follow-up period ranged from 3 to 26 weeks, while the daily recommended dosage of guar gum varied between 8•3 and 39 g. All studies were conducted using both sexes, except for two trials performed exclusively on women (24,25) and two on men (43,48) .…”