The results showed that the therapy significantly improved key markers, such as fasting blood sugar.
Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to treat various ailments, and now it could help combat one of the biggest health problems of the 21st century. A new study from Edith Cowan University in the United States has found that acupuncture can be a useful tool in preventing type 2 diabetes.
In their work, published in the scientific journal Holistic nursing practicethe research team analyzed dozens of studies on the effects of acupuncture on more than 3,600 people with prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes .
The results showed that acupuncture therapy significantly improved key markers such as fasting blood sugar, two-hour blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin, in addition to a further decrease in the incidence of prediabetes. No adverse effects were recorded in patients.
The results showed that acupuncture therapy significantly improved key markers such as fasting blood sugar, two-hour blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin, in addition to a further decrease in the incidence of prediabetes. No adverse effects were recorded in patients.
Acupuncture therapy has shown great promise as an additional option to prevent diabetes, which is estimated to affect 11% of the world’s adult population. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that nearly 1.3 billion people will have diabetes or prediabetes by 2045.
“Without intervention, 93% of people with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within 20 years. But unlike diabetes, prediabetes is reversible with lifestyle interventions such as improved diet and increased physical activity. Many people find it difficult to adhere to long-term lifestyle changes, so non-pharmacological treatments such as acupuncture could be helpful,” said Min Zhang, PhD student and lead researcher of the study. .
“It’s not just about blood sugar levels. If you have trouble sleeping, high blood pressure, or a lot of stress, they can contribute to that, too. So acupuncture can help with those factors and work holistically to help people balance their lives,” says Zhang. The researcher emphasizes that acupuncture is more than just the use of needles: it refers to a large family of techniques for stimulating acupuncture points. , such as light and electrical pulses, and includes other traditional Chinese medicine therapies such as moxibustion.
“It’s important because people with diabetes can have skin problems, so it’s not always ideal to use needles. We need to do more research on acupuncture and diabetes, because we need to find other ways to prevent prediabetes from developing into type 2 diabetes Many people with prediabetes have no symptoms and feel fine, but some people do not progress to diabetes more than 6 months after your diagnosis of prediabetes. In fact, prediabetes intervention is an investment rather than an expense. Therefore, the best time to prevent type 2 diabetes is now,” says Zhang.