Holistic treatments for diabetes becoming more important to consider

When people with chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes think about their treatment options, about half choose to include complementary and alternative medicine therapies in their overall package. However, like most people who use holistic approaches, they usually combine the CAM with conventional medicines.

There is a new finding that confirms an old finding about the established drugs used to lower blood sugar in type 2 diabetes – and it is worrisome. It seems that using the drugs to lower blood sugar as much as possible leads to increased rates of cardiovascular deaths. Similar findings were reported in the late 1960’s about related drugs.

Holistic medicine offers some reasonable options. Obviously in all systems of care, weight loss and exercise are the core strategies. If you want to take supplements, though, the options are interesting to explore – chromium, vanadium, alpha lipoic acid, Gymnema sylvestre, and prickly pear, as well as the spice cinnamon, all have evidence that they can help out with lowering blood sugar and/or reducing symptoms (e.g., lipoic acid may help with diabetic peripheral neuropathy – terrible nerve pain). In balancing potential risks and benefits, right now, the CAM supplements seem to have a significant advantage over the drugs.

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