Researchers from the University of Queensland carried out a controlled clinical trial involving 800 adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes – this is the type of diabetes in which the body cannot produce any or enough insulin to turn sugar from food into essential glucose for cells.
The participants in the study were split into two groups. The first were given the anti-diabetic drug Glibenclamide on its own with the second prescribed Glibenclamide alongside traditional Chinese medicine. The study’s findings revealed that patients given the combined medication were more than a third less likely to experience dangerously low levels of blood sugar – known as hypoglycaemia – than the patients given Glibenclamide on its own.
The participants receiving Chinese herbal medicine also showed fewer symptoms associated with diabetes, such as hunger, palpitation and fatigue, according to the research, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The Queensland research was prompted by the lack of scientific understanding and relevant data in the western world relating to the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine. The study concluded that more research is required into how Chinese medicine can reduce hypoglycaemia but the results of the Australian study suggest that the traditional remedies could be put to work immediately to treat diabetes.
In developing countries, diabetes – and in particular, type 2 diabetes – is fast becoming an epidemic, fuelled by the rise in obesity.