Effects of guar on plasma viscosity and related parameters in diabetic children.

Ten diabetic children supplemented their normal diets with 0.45 g/kg/day guar gum for 4 weeks. They experienced a decrease in (1) plasma fibrinogen, (2) insulin requirement, (3) serum osmolality and (4) plasma viscosity; and an increase in serum albumin and total serum protein concentrations. The decrease in plasma viscosity, which was statistically significant, depended on the increase of albumin and the decrease of fibrinogen and may have some significance to the development of diabetic microangiopathy. The sequence of events eventually leading to a decrease of plasma viscosity is possibly mediated by gip and glucagon, consecutively.