Iranian Journal of

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Background: Atherosclerotic complications are one the most common causes of death in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Epidemiological data indicate that the consumption of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids (O3FA) leads to a reduction in cardiovascular disorders. The metabolic effect of this substance in patients with type 2 diabetes is still a matter of debate, however. The aim of this study was to assess the metabolic effect of O3FA in Iranian diabetic patients.
Methods: 50 diabetic patients (20 men and 30 women mean age 49±7.3 years) were randomly allocated to either the intervention (diet + fish oil containing O3FA) or the control group (diet alone). The lipid and glucose levels, blood pressure, and weight of each patient were measured at the beginning of the study. The duration of the study was 3 months. The aforementioned parameters were re-assessed at the end of the study.
Results: O3FA consumption was associated with a significant reduction in serum triglyceride levels (p<0.001). Reductions in weight, fasting blood sugar, and glycosylated haemoglobin were noted in the intervention group but were not statistically significant. No changes occurred in total cholesterol, HDL, and LDL levels. The dosage of oral hypoglycaemic agents was unchanged in both groups throughout the study.
Conclusion: O3FA may be recommended for the management of hypertriglyceridaemia.

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Background: Pregnancy is a condition that favors oxidative stress mostly because of the mitochondria-rich placenta. Transitional metals, especially Iron, which is particularly abundant in the placenta, are important in the production of free radicals. Also studies showed that free radicals has a role in GDM. This study was performed to compare Iron status between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients and control groups.
Methods: As a case- control study 34 women with GDM were compared with 34 Healthy women matched for referred center, age, parity and BMI. Iron status measurements including ferritin, serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), hemoglobin, MCV and MCH at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy were assessed and compared between two groups.
Results: In this study, concentration of serum ferritin, Iron, transferin saturation and hemoglobin, MCV and MCH were significantly higher in GDM group and TIBC was significantly lower in this group as compared with controls (P<0.05). No significant association was observed in other variables including familial history of diabetes and GDM
Conclusion: Our findings indicate an association between increased Iron status and GDM. The role of excess Iron from Iron supplementation in the pathogenesis of GDM needs to be examined.

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Background: The prevalence of Diabetes mellitus as the most common metabolic disorder of human is progressively increasing. Dyslipidemia is common among diabetic patients characterized by elevated plasma TG, LDL-C and reduced HDL-C levels which increase risk of cardiovascular events. Fish oil supplement which contains omega-3 has been proposed to correct the atherogenic lipid profile associated with diabetes mellitus. Doubt remain whether the net effect of fish oil supplement on lipid profiles are beneficial in diabetes. We therefore performed this randomized double-blind clinical trial to investigate this.

Methods: Ninety six patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were randomized assigned to take 3 times daily supplementation (capsule) with either fish oil or corn oil for 8 weeks (48 patients in each group). At begining also end of study we measured laboratory variables (FBS, TG, Total cholesterol, LDL and HDL) in both groups.

Results: At begining of the study demographic and laboratory measurements were similar in both groups (P>0.05).At 8^th weeks there  were  no statistically  significant  differences  in variables  measured except for  LDL and HDL in fish oil  group that leads to increase and decrease respectively. Although both groups show improvement in LDL / HDL and Total cholesterol / HDL ratios but mean charges were statistically significant in fish oil as compared with corn oil group. (P=0.001, P=0.005 respectively).

Conclusion: Fish oil supplement showed statistically significant improvement in LDL/HDL, Total cholesterol/HDL ratios as compared with corn oil. This may leads to decrease cardiovascular events.

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Background: Physiological stress may affect eating habits and also foods intake may alter the physiological stress. According to the reports of high levels of serum cortisol as a stress biomarker in type 2 diabetic patients the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dietary patterns and serum cortisol concentration in type 2 diabetic patents. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 241 type 2 diabetic patients in 2013. Major dietary patterns were obtained by factor analysis. Serum cortisol was measured at 8 am. Serum cortisol level was compared among tertiles of dietary patterns using ANCOVA adjusted for confounders (age, sex, BMI, and fasting blood glucose). Linear regression analysis was performed to assess the association between serum cortisol and scores of dietary patterns. Results: Three major dietary patterns were identified as Western, healthy and healthy like. None of the variables age, waist circumference, body mass index, physical activity level, duration of diabetes and fasting blood glucose was significantly associated with serum cortisol. After adjustment for confounders, no statistically significant difference was found in mean serum cortisol among tertiles of dietary patterns or no statistically significant association between serum cortisol and dietary patterns scores. Mean serum cortisol was 12.95±5.10 nmol/L which was in normal range. Conclusion: This study showed that in type 2 diabetic patients, normal levels of serum cortisol were not associated with the adherence to Western, Healthy and Healthy like dietary patterns.