ABSTRACT
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the common endocrinology diseases that greatly affects the health care sector and economy. Application of hypoglycemic drugs has its own drawbacks and the use of non-drug therapy on treating T2DM has drawn much attention recently. This paper reviewed the research development of the non-pharmacological interventions on T2DM in recent years, including dietary therapy, exercise therapy, psychotherapy, acupuncture and moxibustion therapies and so on. The authors mentioned the problems in the research of non-drug treatment for blood glucose control of T2DM and put forward new ideas for the research in the future. Further well-designed trials with large sample size and long-term follow-up are needed to confirm current conclusions.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the efficacy and safety of "Three-Typed Syndrome Differentiation" (TTSD) in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A systematic review and meta-analysis was done based on the clinical diabetes treatment literature of the "TTSD". Overseas databases like the PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Clinical Trials, and China databases like China Biology Medicine Disc (CBM), Chinese national Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database, and VIP database, without limitation on language, were included with the time limitation from Jan 1982 to Dec 2012 by retrieval of relative original clinical research articles.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Nineteen articles where contains 1,840 diabetes patients were obtained, in which no adverse reactions were reported. Of these, 14 literatures involved the effect of fasting blood glucose (FBG), 10 involved that of postprandial 2-h blood glucose (P2hBG), and 19 involved the overall efficacy based on the national Chinese medicine (CM) diagnosis and treatment standard of diabetes. All the meta-analysis results prefer to the "TTSD" groups (CM+Western medicine Based on TTSD). The results show that, beside the efficacy of Western medicine, the concentrations of FBG and P2hBG in "TTSD" groups continue to drop with statistical significance. For "TTSD" groups, the FBG subsequently dropped 1.03 mmol/L, 95%CI [1.24,0.82] P <0.00001), the P2hBG subsequently dropped 1.09 mmol/L, 95% CI [1.61, 0.57] (P <0.0001), and the overall efficacies benefit 3.46 times those of Western medicine alone, 95% CI [2.67,4.48] (P <0.00001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The CM by the diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes based on TTSD might be safe and effective, and could better improve both blood glucose and the overall status of patients, including symptoms.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Blood Glucose , Metabolism , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 , Blood , Drug Therapy , Fasting , Blood , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , Postprandial Period , Syndrome , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
An evidence-based practice method according to literature retrieval through PICO (Patients, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) questions and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) topics, which can obtain helpful evidence for guiding clinical practice, was introduced with a practical example in this paper. The knowledge of diseases and Western medicine treatment can be acquired by literature retrieval through PICO question, while searching by CAM topics may provide evidence for Chinese medicine (CM). Thus the author held that literature retrieval through both PICO question and CAM topics was an ideal evidence-based practice method for integrative Chinese and Western medicine (ICWM). However, since the standard in CM evidence hierarchy is still under study, the value of the CAM thematic retrieval method remains very limited. In the future, studies on the definition and hierarchy of CM evidences and the herb-drug interaction between Western and Chinese medicine during a combination therapy should be strengthened to improve the status of ICWM evidence-based practice.