Can Acupuncture Help Prevent Diabetes?

Acupuncture can help fight one of the 21st century’s biggest health challenges - diabetes.

Highlights:

Acupuncture therapy may be a useful tool for treating people with prediabetes
Prediabetes can progress into type 2 diabetes in not more than 6 months
Therefore, maintain a healthy lifestyle to reverse prediabetes

Acupuncture therapy may be a useful tool in preventing type 2 diabetes, reveals a new study from Edith Cowan University.//

Acupuncture for Treating or Preventing? Diabetes

It’s been used for thousands of years to treat a variety of illnesses — and now acupuncture could also help fight one of the 21st century’s biggest health challenges.

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‘Prediabetes is reversible and lifestyle interventions, like a balanced and healthy diet and regular exercise, can help achieve it.’

The research team investigated dozens of studies covering the effects of acupuncture on more than 3600 people with prediabetes, a condition that sees higher-than-normal blood glucose levels without being high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

The findings showed acupuncture therapy significantly improved key markers, such as fasting plasma glucose, two-hour plasma glucose, and glycated hemoglobin, plus a greater decline in the incidence of prediabetes. There were also no reports of adverse reactions among patients.

Ph.D. candidate and lead researcher Min Zhang said this showed great promise for acupuncture therapy as an additional option to ward off diabetes, which is estimated to affect 11 percent of the world’s adult population.

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The International Diabetes Federation estimates nearly 1.3 billion people will have either diabetes or prediabetes by 2045.

“Without intervention, 93 percent of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within 20 years,” Ms. Zhang said. “But unlike diabetes, prediabetes is reversible with lifestyle interventions such as improved diet and increase in exercise. However, many people struggle to adhere to lifestyle changes long-term, so non-pharmacological treatments such as acupuncture could prove valuable.”

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‘Should Acupuncture-Related Therapies be considered in Prediabetes Control? Results from a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials’ was published in Holistic Nursing Practice.

Holistic Approach to Manage Diabetes

Though diabetes is often associated with lifestyle factors, other aspects of life may also have an impact — which is where acupuncture comes in.

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Acupuncture may naturally relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, excess sweating, mood swings, sleep disturbances, and skin and hair problems. Therefore, acupuncture could be a realistic treatment option for menopausal women who do not wish to use hormone therapy.

“It’s not only about blood sugar levels,” Ms. Zhang said. “If you experience sleep problems, high blood pressure, a lot of stress, these can contribute too. So, acupuncture can help with these factors and work holistically to help people balance their life.”

Ms. Zhang said it’s important to note acupuncture therapy is more than just using needles — it refers to a big family of acupoint stimulation techniques, such as light and electric pulses, and includes other traditional Chinese medicine therapies such as moxibustion.

“This is important because diabetic people can have issues with their skin, so perhaps it may not always be ideal to be using needles,” she said. “We need to do more research into acupuncture and diabetes because we need to find more ways to prevent prediabetes developing into type 2 diabetes.”

“Many people with prediabetes don’t have any symptoms and feel fine, but some people progress into the diabetes period no more than 6 months after their prediabetes diagnosis. In fact, prediabetes intervention is an investment rather than an expenditure.”

“So, the best time to prevent type 2 diabetes is now.”

Source-Eurekalert