Richard*, who has a 5-year history of diabetes, has been experiencing numbness, burning and tingling in his lower limbs for the past five months. When Richard chose to receive Chinese medicine treatment, his lower calf skin pigmentation was excessive, his tongue color was dark red with thick fur and his pulse was tight and slippery.
But after he took Chinese medicine, his symptoms improved significantly. He continued to take Chinese medicine and receive treatment from traditional Chinese medicine, and went back for follow-up visits every two weeks.
Traditional Chinese medicine has a long and successful history in treating diabetes and its complications. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that modern diabetes is equivalent to the ancient Chinese medical name “xiaoke”. The common symptoms of xiaoke are what we ordinary people call “three mores and one less”: drinking more, eating more, urinating more, and a significant decrease in weight in a short period of time. As early as the first century BC, the medical work “Huangdi Neijing” can be found in the record of “xiaoke disease”. The ancients believed that xiaoke disease was caused by eating too much fatty, sweet and greasy food.
Modern Chinese doctors believe that poor diet is one of the factors that cause diabetes. Chinese medicine believes that the pathogenesis of diabetes is due to insufficient Yin fluid in the body, which causes internal heat.
In addition to greasy, sweet and spicy foods, alcoholism and other foods that damage the spleen and produce dampness and heat, there are three other factors that can easily lead to Yin deficiency and excessive fire in the body:
- Unstable emotions in life lead to poor qi flow in the body, which turns into fire and produces what we call internal heat.
- Insufficient innate talent
- Excessive sexual intercourse can damage kidney essence. Kidney yin controls the yin of the whole body. If kidney essence is insufficient, the kidney cannot provide yin fluid to the whole body.
Symptomatic treatment
TCM does not treat diabetes like modern medicine. TCM does not focus on the level of blood sugar, but on the symptoms of the patient. These symptoms can be divided into three types: upper, middle and lower.
The main clinical manifestation of diabetes mellitus is polydipsia. Other common clinical manifestations include dry mouth, irritability, red tongue with thin yellow fur and rapid pulse. When you have these symptoms, a Chinese medicine practitioner will diagnose your diabetes mellitus as diabetes mellitus of …
The most common symptom of thirst is also the common polyphagia symptom of Zhongxiao. These patients often have bad breath, weight loss, frequent mouth sores, thirst, frequent urination, constipation, red tongue with yellow fur, and a strong pulse. Zhongxiao, also known as the syndrome of intense stomach heat, is commonly treated with Yunu Decoction. Yunu Decoction contains herbs such as gypsum, rhizoma anemarrhenae, and gardenia to clear stomach heat.
The third syndrome is lower consumption. Common clinical manifestations include polyuria, turbid urine, soreness of waist and knees, fatigue, dizziness, tinnitus, dry lips, dry skin and even itching, red tongue with little coating, and weak pulse. Traditional Chinese medicine calls these symptoms manifestations of kidney yin deficiency. The most commonly used prescription for treating kidney yin deficiency is Liu Wei Di Huang Pills. It contains yin-nourishing drugs such as Schisandra chinensis, Chinese yam, and Chinese wolfberry.
“Generally speaking, the purpose of TCM treatment for diabetes is to strengthen the spleen and kidney,” explains Tang Yue, a senior physician at Eu Yan Sang.
Use Chinese medicine to achieve better results
Especially in the past decade, scientific research supports the use of TCM to supplement or enhance traditional medicine for the treatment of diabetes and to mitigate the risks associated with certain medications.
In the 2013 study, 800 people with diabetes were treated with either “Xiao Ke Wan” (a Chinese herbal compound combined with glibenclamide) or glibenclamide alone. Glyburide is an antidiabetic drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes. This drug has the effect of lowering blood sugar. At the end of 48 weeks, the risk of hypoglycemia in patients taking Xiao Ke Wan was significantly reduced compared with those taking glibenclamide, and blood sugar control was similarly improved. This controlled double-blind trial was conducted in China and compiled by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the United States.
However, it is important to remember that when TCM is used in conjunction with Western medicine, it should always be done with the knowledge and advice of a qualified TCM practitioner and Western medicine professional.
Health starts with diet
Diet is just as important as herbs. Taking Chinese herbs is only part of the solution.
Senior Physician Tang said: “Even if we are receiving TCM treatment and taking Chinese medicine, it is still very important to change our eating habits.” Physician Tang recommends eating less high-sugar foods such as candy, chocolate, cakes and sweet drinks, and also reducing the intake of starch and fat.
Instead, diabetics should eat more foods with a low glycemic index (GI). This helps reduce spikes in blood sugar levels. These foods include oats, whole-wheat bread, brown rice, lentils, soybeans, and walnuts. Other beneficial foods such as black fungus, yam, coix seed, American ginseng, wolfberry, etc. can also be consumed in soup.
In addition, Senior Physician Tang explained, “Diabetic patients should make some lifestyle changes such as eating less sugar, less salt and less oil. They should also do more aerobic exercise. This will make the cells in the body more sensitive to insulin.” Finally, Physician Tang also continued: “We Chinese have a saying – “control your mouth and move your legs”. This means that if we don’t pay attention to our diet and exercise more, our body will have problems such as diabetes. The key is to maintain a healthy body mass index between 18 and 23, and try to be active for at least 150 minutes a week. These will help you control your blood sugar levels and find ways to improve your health.”