It used to be that mainstream medicine and complementary medicine were never mixed – people generally entrusted their wellness to one or the other. Now, the trend has altered, and people are able to look after their wellbeing in a number of different ways, mixing traditional and complementary medicines with the latest in scientific advances, to find the best treatments, cures and preventative steps that fit their personal situations.
Thanks to this more open attitude towards complementary medicine, new evidence is merging that traditional Chinese medicine herb, when taken alongside a conventional drug for diabetes, could be the most effective way discovered to date for treating type 2 diabetes. This was published in a journal called PLOS ONE and could be revolutionary in terms of changing the outcomes for patients suffering from this disease.
The study was carried out at Peking University as well as Australia’s University of Queensland and it involved data taken from 800 patients who were suffering from poorly controlled type 2 diabetes. Normally, patients who are unable to control their type 2 diabetes can suffer from all kinds of unpleasant consequences, such as amputation of limbs, blindness and even premature death.
Patients in the study were split into two groups and randomly assigned to either receive an anti-diabetes drug called glibenclamide or to receive a pill called the xiaoke pill, which was a compound of Chinese herbs as well as the normal glibenclamide.
The subjects of the trial were then assessed after 48 weeks and it was found that those who had taken the combined pill now had a significant reduction in their risk of hypoglycemia (otherwise known as low blood sugar) and also had marked improvements in their blood glucose control, when compared to patients who only took the glibenclamide on its own.
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