Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. There are several therapeutic strategies that are obtainable in the viewpoint of Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM) knowledge ranging from changes in lifestyle to pharmacological remedies. Objective: To evaluate the effect of the TPM based nutritional recommendations on blood glucose and lipid profile in patients with type 2 DM. Materials and Methods: In this randomized controlled clinical trial, we divided 54 participants with type 2 DM into two groups. The intervention group received a three months TPM based nutritional style, and the control group had the routine care from their health care providers. The fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) as primary outcome measures and triglyceride and total cholesterol as secondary outcome measures were determined for this study at the baseline and three months after the intervention in both groups. Results: There was a statistically significant reduction in fasting blood glucose (165.48±30.18 versus 203.92±42.66 p=0.001), HbA1c (7.57±0.51 versus 8.05±0.82 p=0.000), triglyceride (154.91±50.52 versus 197.40±71.87 p=0.000), and total cholesterol (167.79±28.87 versus 184.76±38.36 p=0.006) respectively in the intervention group compared to control group after study. Conclusion: TPM based nutritional recommendations as an affordable free and accessible approach could be introduced as a non- pharmacological strategy for the control of blood glucose and lipid profile in diabetic patients.