Recently in diabetes Category

I was very touched by G. Michael Reynold's account of losing his first patient and I wanted to share it. I know people who are as ill as his patient.

You can read the whole post, O Death, at Deepest Health blog, http://deepesthealth.com/2010/o-death/.

"I lost my first patient recently, on the very doorstep of Autumn. He was literally my first patient, the first person ever to come to me for help. His condition was grave even from the beginning. Chronic renal failure, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy that required a subcutaneous morphine pump in his side in order to bear the constant agony, wheelchair bound, legs swollen and edematous, skin unnaturally black, heart failing. Friendly, personable, courageous. He got into this shape via diabetes, during which his 5'9″ frame was forced to support over 300 lbs of weight, now shrunken to around 150 lbs. As a first patient, this was very much being tossed into the deep end of the pool and finding out if you could swim.

I was confident we could get him off dialysis, which he needed three times per week. I told him as much. I had access to nearly unlimited stores of Fu Zi and I knew how to use it. The fact that his radial arteries were so devastated from constant dialysis that I couldn't get a pulse didn't especially deter me, nor did the fact that he could only take in a few ounces of liquid per day, nor did the fact that he spent pretty much every waking hour hustling from one MD to the next to get this procedure or that test or these medications. In Chinese Medicine did I trust, and I would do my best."

read the rest of this long article at Deepest Health blog
 
What is Deepest Health site all about? Deepest Health is a center for education and connection around one broad topic - Chinese Medicine. Contributors to this website are united in their desire to see that relevant, vital and Classically based information about Chinese medicine be available to students, practitioners and interested members of the public.

By: Billy Shonez Singh, MS, L.Ac. 

©2009

 

                  It is a disease that is defined as a metabolic disorder that is characterized by either abnormally low or high blood sugar levels that lead to a variety of metabolic derangements.  It is commonly characterized by fatigue, excessive urination, excessive thirst, and excessive hunger.  In this country, it is the biggest cause of death or disability.  In developed countries, the incidence of diabetes has doubled in the last 15 years and its going to double in the next 15 years.  The worst part of this situation is that one out of three people do not know they have diabetes.  For those that are diagnosed have had it for much longer amount of time and wind up with complications such as neuropathies.  According to Clinton J. Choate's article "Diabetes Mellitus (Part One)", it is estimated that 60% to 70% of diabetics have mild to severe forms of nervous system damage.

The symptoms range from:

• Pain in the feet and legs.
• Cramping, tenderness, and muscle weakness.  They can occur in the legs and feet along with the arms and hands.
• Paraesthesias- pricking, tingling, or numbness along the skin.
• Blurred vision.
• Impotence

 
In allopathic medicine, the treatment for diabetic neuropathies involve physical therapy, medications and in severe circumstances, surgical intervention.  The some of the medications used to treat paraesthetic pain and other neuropathies are tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.  Even though these specific medications are used in the treatment of depression, they are also used in treating peripheral neuropathies.  However the side-effects are numerous and seem counterintuitive when one looks at them.  For example, the antidepressant Imiprine (Tofronil) treats peripheral neuropathies by releasing norepinephrine in the central pain modulating pathways located in the brainstem and spinal cord.  However a side-effect of Imiprine is impairment of mental or physical abilities and cardiovascular disease.  When you look at those side-effects and compare them to the risk that diabetics have with cardiovascular disease, it seems rather counterproductive.
According to Subhuti Dharmanada, "Acupuncture therapy is a common approach to treating diabetes in China.  Many Americans assume that acupuncture is only suitable for treating pain, perhaps because the initial introduction of acupuncture was mainly for this application.  Increasingly, people with pain and other health problems for which acupuncture is selected also have diabetes."  Acupuncture can treat neuropathies by bringing blood flow and nerve conduction to the skin to treat numbness and tingling in the extremities.  Another point to mention is that blood flow and nerve restoration can also be accomplished in regards to the treatment of blurred vision and impotence.  Unlike the medications mentioned, acupuncture has no side-effects.  
 
 

 

Bibliography
Dharmanda Ph.D., Subhuti "Treatment of Diabetes with Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture" web posting date: January 2005 www.itmonline.org pg.14
 
Choate, Clinton J. "Modern Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine: Diabetes Mellitus (Part One)" Journal of Chinese Medicine Number 58 September 1998 pg.4
 
Echeverry, MD, MPH, Diana M. "Diabetic Neuropathy: Treatment and Medication" updated April 4th, 2007 http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/315434-treatment

Excellent article on diabetes by Clinton J. Choate, L. Ac. published in Acupuncture.com.

November is National Diabetes Month.

Diabetes, Biomedical and TCM Perspectives and Treatments (Part 1)

Part 1 covers the biomedical treatment of diabetes; the nutritional therapy section is helpful.

Diabetes Mellitus From Western and TCM Perspectives - Part 2

Diabetes was discussed in all the earliest ancient TCM tests, including Neijing. According to TCM overconsumption of fatty and greasy food, sweets, emotional disturbances, and a constitution that is too yin is related to developing diabetes. Clinton Choate then analyzes diabetes according to TCM theory, explains treatment according to the Three Burners, giving acupuncture protocol. He explains diabetic complications according to TCM  including cataracts and night blindness, edema, skin infectins, neuropathy and strokes. He describes food remedies for diabetes.

This article is helpful to anyone suffering from diabetes who wants to understand it better, and helpful forTCM practitioners.