Diabetes is a major health problem worldwide, but particularly in America. It is estimated that about 2.1% of the world’s population has diabetes, but the disease is out of control in America. In the U.S., current estimates are that over 6% of the adult population has the disease, 99% of them with the type 2 diabetes mellitus (late onset or non-insulin-dependent: NIDDM). Type 2 diabetes usually appears around the age of 50 or later, though it can occur during teen years in some cases of obesity. The incidence rate becomes quite high among elderly Americans (20% for those over the age of 65) and in groups with genetic or other predispositions including blacks (14%), hispanics (15%), and Native Americans (19%). Furthermore, the overall incidence of diabetes is growing, apparently because of increased rates of obesity. Despite the major medical advances in rapid and easy monitoring of blood sugar and treatment with drugs, diabetes remains a serious problem. Blood sugar regulation that can be attained by standard methods, particularly when patients are not fully compliant with all medical recommendations, is often not adequate to avoid common secondary effects of diabetes, including cardiovascular diseases, degenerative eye conditions, limb numbness and pain, skin ulceration, and kidney failure. Thus, investigating other avenues for aiding the treatment of diabetes and its secondary consequences is an important undertaking. Practitioners of Chinese medicine in the U.S. and other Western countries often have more time to spend consulting with their patients than do medical doctors. This extra time gives an opportunity for exploring with the patient the key roles of exercise and dietary control in limiting the impact of diabetes and preventing its development with aging for those who do not currently have the disease. While acupuncture and herbs are an important option for these patients, it is clear from the evidence that exists that as much or more can be accomplished through changes in behavior. It is necessary for practitioners to keep current with information about dietary advice, as some concepts that were common just a few years ago have turned out to be incorrect or misleading, and are replaced by new approaches backed by recent research.
In the Traditional Eastern medicine approach, the disease begins with a deficiency of yin. This seems contradictory to the appearance of the patient, who often shows obese constitution and low metabolism, signs that would correspond to excess of yin and deficiency of yang. However, the patients with early stage of diabetes actually have a hyperactive metabolism that does not provide useful energy. Hence, the food nutrients are not successfully utilized; hunger persists, sugar pours out in the urine, thirst develops, and there may be easy sweating. This yin deficiency then generates heat that becomes pathological and then parches the yin. The imbalance of yin and yang eventually degrades and inhibits the qi, so that qi and yin deficiency co-exist. At this point, secondary effects, such as blood stasis and damp-heat, manifest, causing many serious symptoms (29). Without proper nourishment of qi and yin, yang eventually becomes impaired, and the patient, now with advanced disease, has a combined deficiency of qi, yin, and yang.
Acupuncture therapy is a common approach to treating diabetes in China. Many Americans assume that acupuncture is only suitable for treating pain, perhaps because the initial introduction of acupuncture was mainly for this application. Indeed, the general opinion here appears to be that acupuncture ought to be used mainly for treating chronic back pain. Therefore, relatively few people have turned to acupuncture for treating the disease. Increasingly, people with pain and other health problems for which acupuncture is selected also have diabetes.
In the U.S., it is uncommon for people to receive acupuncture therapy every day, as is the method used in the clinical studies reported in the Chinese medical journals. Instead, one may undertake a course of therapy with acupuncture once or twice per week. Needless to say, the impact of the intermittent treatment is not as great as with daily acupuncture. However, through the combination of the less frequent acupuncture and the daily ingestion of herbs, one might reasonably expect to accomplish results comparable to those reported in China where the majority of patients get some degree of blood sugar normalization and relief of symptoms. Best results are expected for younger individuals and those who have had diabetes for only a few years. Most acupuncturists in the U.S. have not been called upon to treat many patients with diabetes, mainly because of the misconception that acupuncture is not suitable for that disorder. Nonetheless, acupuncturists are in a position to provide expert treatment because the points to be needled are also used (in various other combinations) for treating other disorders. For example, the acupuncture point zusanli (called ST-36) is one of the most commonly used points for chronic diseases and is used especially when the disease is obviously affected by dietary factors.
This article is from Journal of the institute for traditional medicine and preventive health care by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon.
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