The Role of Probiotics on Controlling Diabetes Mellitus: An Umbrella Review

There are some evidences about the effects of probiotics on controlling different types of diabetes and reviewing these studies could be of great help in clarifying the efficacy of these dietary supplements in management of diabetes. Thus, we aimed to review the role of probiotics on glycemic control and other biochemical parameters in patients with diabetes.

An umbrella review of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, systematic reviews and meta-analysis in English and Persian were performed by thorough search in PubMed and Scopus. Eligible studies on the effects of probiotics in patients with diabetes published up to 30 September 2020 were selected.

Thirty one eligible papers were identified. In these studies, the effects of probiotic supplements or probiotic food products on glycemic status (n=18), lipid profile (n=12), inflammatory and oxidative stress factors (n=11), blood pressure (n=4), and Body Mass Index (n=2) in patients with type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes were investigated.

Findings revealed positive effects of probiotic supplements on glycemic status, lipid profile, blood pressure, oxidative stress and inflammation in patients with type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes. However, due to high heterogeneity in some parameters, further high quality double-blind clinical trials can shed light on the effectiveness of these supplements.