Summary: In overweight or obese adults with prediabetes, combining 8 weeks of concurrent training with a microencapsulated persimmon-karonda polyphenol supplement produced the largest improvements in glycaemic control, inflammation, fitness, and well-being, exceeding exercise or supplement alone.
PICO Summary
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Population | 43 overweight or obese adults with prediabetes (four arms). |
| Intervention | 8 weeks of concurrent (aerobic plus resistance) training with microencapsulated persimmon-karonda polyphenol supplement (CBT+EATME). |
| Comparison | Placebo, training alone (CBT), or supplement alone (EATME). |
| Outcome | Combined arm showed the greatest gains: fasting glucose (p<0.01), HbA1c (p<0.05), HOMA-IR (p<0.01), lower hs-CRP and IL-6 (both p<0.01), higher adiponectin (p<0.01), improved VO2max and strength (p<0.05), and psychological well-being. No adverse effects. |
Concurrent training plus polyphenol in prediabetes
RCT · prediabetes · 8 weeks
The combined training-plus-polyphenol arm produced the largest glycaemic, inflammatory and fitness gains, but exercise was the main driver and each 11-person arm is underpowered.
Expert Commentary
I value the four-arm design, because it lets me see what the polyphenol actually adds on top of exercise rather than crediting the combination wholesale, and the answer is reassuringly honest: exercise is doing the heavy lifting, with the supplement an amplifier at best. The exercise half rests on bedrock evidence, the Diabetes Prevention Program and its successors, so I need no convincing there. The polyphenol half is more exploratory, and I stay sceptical because prior fruit-polyphenol trials, resveratrol especially, have been inconsistent and bioavailability-limited, which is exactly the problem the microencapsulation here claims to solve. With 43 people split four ways, each arm is underpowered, the endpoints are eight-week surrogates, and the formulation is proprietary, so I cannot generalise to whatever a patient buys online. Can I use this with my patients? Yes for the exercise message, which I would emphasise as the priority, structured aerobic plus resistance training. The polyphenol I would treat as an unproven add-on, not something I recommend or expect to replicate with commercial products. A larger, longer trial with diabetes-incidence endpoints would change my mind.
References
Sukatta U, Rugthaworn P, Klinsukhon K, et al. Synergistic effects of microencapsulated polyphenols and concurrent training on metabolic health and fitness in overweight/obese adults with prediabetes. Nutrients. 2025;17(21):3358. doi:10.3390/nu17213358