A Randomized Clinical Trial of Beetroot Juice Consumption on Inflammatory Markers and Oxidative Stress in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Background: /Objectives Oxidative stress and chronic inflammation are both major underlying factors for the initiation and progression of diabetes as well as for the development of long-term diabetes-related consequences in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study was designed to evaluate the effects of concentrated beetroot juice (BJ) consumption on oxidative stress and inflammatory markers in patients with T2DM. Methods: In this 12-weeks randomized clinical trial, forty-six patients with T2DM were randomly assigned to either the concentrated BJ or the control group. The BJ group received 12 ml concentrated beetroot juice twice daily, whereas the control group received no intervention. At baseline and the end of week 12, plasma levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) were measured. Results: Compared with control group, concentrated BJ reduced IL-6 (−0.1 vs. 0.83, p = .001), TNF-α (−1.28 vs. 5.51, p = .001), and NF-κB (−0.03 vs. 0.36, p = .005) after 12 weeks intervention; plasma concentration of MDA and hs-CRP did not change between groups after intervention. Intra-group comparison with paired t-test disclosed that daily BJ consumption could not change oxidative stress and inflammatory markers except for TNF-α compared with baseline values. However, the concentrations of IL-6, TNF-α, and NF-κB increased significantly in the control group at the end of week 12 compared to baseline (p = .001, p = .001, p = .021, respectively). Conclusions: In conclusion, our study indicates that daily consumption of 24 ml concentrated BJ to patients with T2DM reduces the concentrations of some inflammatory markers including IL-6, TNF-α, and NF-κB which are involved in the pathogenesis of complications of T2DM. Trial Registration This study was registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) with the following identification: IRCT20150815023617N5.