What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease that affects millions of people around the world, with more and more new diagnoses each day. There are two different forms of the disease, Type 1 and Type 2, and both revolve around insulin production and resistance, and how this affects blood glucose levels. There are varieties of medications used to treat this disease, all with varying levels of success. Another, more holistic option that can be used to augment these treatments, is the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture.
How Can Acupuncture Help Treat Diabetes?
Acupuncture is the ancient Chinese practice of using needles to stimulate certain points in the body and to balance and channel the qi that flows inside it. There are a variety of different ways this can alleviate the negative conditions that diabetes causes in the human body.
Acupuncture and Blood Glucose Levels
According to Medical News Today, “Acupuncture in Medicine reviewed a group of studies where electroacupuncture was combined with an anti-diabetic medication, called metformin, to look for better glucose lowering responses and greater insulin sensitivity. The researchers found the electroacupuncture-metformin combination did offer better glucose lowering effects and greater insulin sensitivity than metformin alone.”
Acupuncture alone is not capable of treating this condition, but there is evidence to prove that it can augment and improve existing and proven methods of treatment, taking it that extra step to make a real significant difference in the lives of those affected by this condition. Life-style changes are central to managing diabetes.
Acupuncture and Diabetic Nerve Pain
There is more than one way acupuncture can help diabetes, and not just by being an augment for medications, but also in other ways. According to Medical News Today “One 2006 Chinese study reported in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, found wrist-ankle acupuncture treatments to be helpful in treating diabetic peripheral neuritis (nerve damage resulting from diabetes). The study’s researchers looked at three different treatment options for diabetic peripheral neuritis: wrist-ankle acupuncture, body-acupuncture, and traditional Western medical treatment and found that the wrist-ankle treatments were the most effective for managing nerve pain in diabetic patients.”