3.1. Study and Control Group Characteristics
The study group consisted of 50 patients with a mean age of 60.8 ± 9.5
years, including 27 (54%) women. Overall, 24% were overweight (BMI
> 25 kg/m2) and 70% were obese (BMI > 30
kg/m2). Average WHR was: 0.975. All subjects were diagnosed with type 2
diabetes mellitus (median glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c): 8.75%; average
duration time is 10.5 years) and dyslipidemia. The concomitant diseases
included hypertension (80%), chronic kidney disease (18%—all in
stage G3a), hypothyroidism (14% everyone with normalized
(thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) value) and heart failure with reduced
ejection fraction (8%). For diabetes treatment, patients chronically
received metformin (98%), sulfonylurea (44%), SGLT2 inhibitors (20%),
dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (8%) and insulin (28%). Full
treatment data are available in the Table 1. The medications used by the
patient were not changed during the intervention. At baseline, serum
median levels of total cholesterol was 166.5 mg/mL, low-density
lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) was 83 mg/dL, high-density
lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) was: 49.5 mg/dL and triglycerides (TG)
was 167.9 mg/dL. Mean levels of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate
transaminase (AST) were 34.4 U/L and 32.5 U/L respectively, and the
median systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 135 mmHg. There were 18%
active smokers and none of the patients abused alcohol. In total, 20
subjects (40%) met the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for
physical activity.
The control group consisted of 26 sex-matched patients with a mean age
of 33.08 ± 5.45 years, including 13 (50%) women. Overall, 19% were
overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2) and no one was obese (BMI
> 30 kg/m2). Average WHR was: 0.83. All subjects were not
diagnosed with any concomitant diseases. Baseline characteristics and
comparison of metabolic parameters between study and control group are
presented in Tables 2 and 3.