Clinical Findings: Palm Tocotrienol Helps Protect The Kidney of Diabetic Patients

The study is published in the high-impact journal, Nutrients, focusing on diabetic nephropathy, one of the major complications for diabetes and the leading cause of end stage renal failure worldwide

A randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was conducted by a group of researchers from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, to investigate the effect of EVNol SupraBio on diabetic nephropathy (also known as diabetic kidney disease).

The study is published in the high-impact journal, Nutrients, focusing on diabetic nephropathy, one of the major complications for diabetes and the leading cause of end stage renal failure worldwide.

In general, kidney damage rarely happens in the first 10 years of diabetes. Kidney failure usually happens 15–25 years after the first symptoms of diabetes.

As diabetic nephropathy takes many years to develop, 45 patients with type 2 diabetes for an average of 18.5 years were selected for this study.

Their microalbuminuria-positive results were ensured to be derived from diabetic nephropathy alone (microalbuminuria is an early sign of kidney disease). They were randomly divided into two groups:

· Placebo group
· Intervention group receiving EVNol SupraBio

The blood serum of the patients were measured at baseline and after 8 weeks of supplementation with either 400 mg/day of EVNol SupraBio or a placebo.

EVNol SupraBio bioenhanced full spectrum palm tocotrienol complex significantly reduced serum creatinine levels, potentially averting the progression of renal impairment among the diabetic nephropathy patients.

No significant changes were observed in the level of HbA1c, serum AGE, sRAGE, Nε-CML and cystatin C in the diabetic nephropathy patients in this study.

This was the opposite to a previous study using a newly induced diabetic rat model that showed supplementation of EVNol SupraBio significantly reduce the aforementioned biomarkers.

As per the researchers, the lack of significant effects observed in this study could be due to the long duration of diabetes among the patients (average 18.5 years), causing a long-term and difficult-to-reverse accumulation of these biomarkers in the body.

This might have hindered the reduction and led the researchers to recommend a longer supplementation time for the tocotrienol to take effect.

Nevertheless, supplementation with EVNol SupraBio complex significantly reduced serum creatinine levels compared with a placebo. Therefore, the researchers concluded that EVNol SupraBio may be useful in addition to the current treatment for diabetic nephropathy.

“Tocotrienol has been proven to have 40–60 times more potent antioxidant activity compared with tocopherol and has superior anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and cardioprotective properties. However, the renoprotective effect of tocotrienol in type 2 diabetes patient is currently limited and we are glad the researchers choose EVNol SupraBio to investigate the effect of tocotrienol in delaying diabetic nephropathy,” says Diyanah Roslan, Nutritionist at ExcelVite.

“The number of people affected by diabetes continue to increase by the year, and it is vital to search for the right remedy to help delay diabetic complications, such as diabetic nephropathy. We are glad this study demonstrates the efficacy of EVNol SupraBio in reducing creatinine level specifically, which potentially could slow down the progression of diabetic nephropathy,” added Bryan See, Business Development Manager of ExcelVite.

References
S.M.Q Tan, et al., "Tocotrienol-Rich Vitamin E from Palm Oil (Tocovid) and its Effects in Diabetes and Diabetic Nephropathy: A Pilot Phase II Clinical Trial," Nutrients, 10(9) (2018).
H.S. Cheng et al., "The Ameliorative Effects of a Tocotrienol-Rich Fraction on the AGE-RAGE Axis and Hypertension in High-Fat-Diet-Fed Rats with Metabolic Syndrome," Nutrients, 9(9) (2018).