The effects of dietary supplements and natural products targeting glucose levels: an overview

Identifying effective dietary supplements and medicinal herbs has attracted the attention of clinicians and researchers to complement the standard treatment in controlling diabetes mellitus. In the present overview, we aimed to collect studies with the highest level of evidence to shed light on dete...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical reviews in food science and nutrition 2023-09, Vol.63 (23), p.6138-6167
Main Authors: Hekmat-Ardakani, Alireza, Morshed-Behbahani, Bahar, Rahimi-Ardabili, Hania, Ayati, Mohammad Hossein, Namazi, Nazli
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chromium
Clinical trials
complementary therapies
Decision making
diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Diet
Dietary supplements
Disease control
Glucose
Hemoglobin
Herbal medicine
Herbs
Heterogeneity
Medicinal herbs
Medicinal plants
Natural products
overview
Reduction
Supplements
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Identifying effective dietary supplements and medicinal herbs has attracted the attention of clinicians and researchers to complement the standard treatment in controlling diabetes mellitus. In the present overview, we aimed to collect studies with the highest level of evidence to shed light on detecting the most effective dietary supplements and medicinal herbs for controlling glycemic status. For the current overview, four electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, were systematically searched from inception to 31 December 2020 and then updated until 1 October 2021 to obtain eligible meta-analyses on either dietary supplements or medicinal herbs and their effects on glycemic status. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) and Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) were considered as primary outcomes. Finally, ninety-one meta-analyses on dietary supplements (n = 55) and herbs (n = 36) were included. Evidence showed positive effects of chromium, zinc, propolis, aloe vera, milk thistle, fenugreek, cinnamon, ginger, and nettle on FBS and/or HbA1C. However, mostly the heterogeneity (I 2 ) was high. Other supplements and herbs also showed no reduction in glucose levels or their effects were small. Although some dietary supplements and medicinal herbs showed a significant reduction in FBS and/or HbA1C, mostly their effects from the clinical point of view were not remarkable. In addition, due to high heterogeneity, publication bias, and a limited number of included studies in most cases further clinical trials are needed for making decision on anti-diabetic supplement efficacy.
ISSN:1040-8398
1549-7852
DOI:10.1080/10408398.2022.2028716