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About 26 million Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes. A study in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine has now revealed that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), in adjunction to conventional medicine, holds various positive benefits for people with type 2diabetes, compared with those who only receive conventional medicine. For instance, better eating and exercise habits lower blood sugar levels, improve moods and give the person a stronger sense of control over their condition.
Ryan Bradley, ND, MPH, director of the Diabetes and Cardiovascular WellnessClinic at Bastyr Center for Natural Health declared:
"The news is encouraging for those fighting the disease. Patients involved in the study cited the benefits of trying different approaches to find the best ways to minimize the effects of type 2 diabetes. In many ways, that strategy mirrors our partnership with Group Health in this research study - working together to discover the best possible solutions."
The study, a joint collaboration between the Group Health Research Institute and the Bastyr University Research Institute provided 40 type 2 diabetes patients with diet and exercise counseling and glucose monitoring from four naturopathic physicians (NDs).
A large proportion of participants also received stress-management care and dietary supplements, all of which was in addition to the standard diabetes care and prescription drugs they received from their medical doctors. The participants were then compared with 329 patients who only received conventional diabetes care.
The outcome, after 6 months and after around four naturopathic treatments, demonstrated that the 40 patients displayed improved self-care, improved moods and were more consistent in monitoring their glucose levels, with their hemoglobin A1c rates being almost a full percentage point lower, compared with the patients in the conventional care group, whose rates only dropped by 0.5% over the same period of time.
Dr. Bradley said although the findings of this small observational study are very encouraging, they need to be confirmed with larger numbers of participants in a randomized trial. Given that type 2 diabetes is one of the top-10 causes of death in Americans, it is important to find more alternative effective options for treating the disease. The fight against the disease is also very costly at $178 billion annually, which means that 1$ out of every $10 spend on health care in the U.S. goes to treat type 2 diabetes.
Senior researcher Daniel Cherkin, PhD, at the Group Health Research Institute declares:
"Our number-one goal is to help patients. Collaboration with our research colleagues at Bastyr University allows us to explore a broader range of ways to help meet the needs of our patients."
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