INTRODUCTION
Diabetes mellitus, known simply as diabetes, is a widespread disease in which blood glucose levels increase due to a deficiency in insulin secretion or a decreased cell response to insulin (Reece et al., 2011). Blood glucose is not regulated, as the insufficient amount of insulin created is unable to process and break down the blood glucose in our body (Bailey, 2008). The two common types of diabetes mellitus are type 1 and type 2, in which, respectively, insulin production is absent and there is cell resistance to insulin (Kishore, 2012). Since there is no current cure for diabetes (Vinik et al., 2004), the disease is controlled by insulin injections, medication, anti-diabetic drugs, healthy eating and exercise (Bailey, 2008). But recently, the use of alternative medicine and therapy, which is treatment that is not broadly practiced in hospitals or widely educated in medical schools, is increasing (Pandey et al., 2011) as a regimen for diabetes. These treatments include nutritional and dietary therapy, herbal remedies, homeopathy, meditation, massage and spiritual healing (Egede et al., 2002). Alternative medicine practices are not part of conventional medicinal treatment because they are not sufficiently proven to be safe and effective (NCCAM, 2004), but this is not stopping people with diabetes from using them in the attempt to better their condition. I analyzed and evaluated five websites pertaining to the topic of alternative medicine for the treatment of diabetes, (Lu et al., 2012), (Arýkan et al., 2008), (Kasuli, 2011), Asian Ginseng (Ehrlich) and Ginger and Diabetes (Diabetes.co.uk), and ranked them in terms of their suitability as a scientific reference for the above topic.
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7) McGee, C.T., Sancier, K., & Chow, E. P. Y. Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, ed. M. S. Micozzi. New York, Churchill Livingstone, 1996, 225-230.
In today’s world, many people assume that the latest medical technology and treatments are always the best option. However, all over the world, different techniques for curing diseases and aliments are being used. These methods fall under the category of complementary and alternative medicine.
Type 1 diabetes is a life long disease and needs life-long control and treatment. Various organizations and foundations have also been created to spread the awareness of diabetes and to enhance research on diabetes to improve the quality of life and reduce dependence on insulin. Natural herbs and remedies could be one of the ways!
Alternative medicines that focus on mindfulness and holistic practices have shown to be increasingly popular among people. Approximately one-third of patients, adults and children, use these alternative medicines, with an even higher rate, between 60 and 84 percent, when treating life-long diseases like ADHD, asthma, and cancer (Vlieger, 2007). There are a variety of mindfulness based therapies that are used to improve psychological and physical health outcomes, in...
This motivates me to study and practice alternative medicine which has a different approach to healing than conventional medicine. Alternative medicine uses treatments such as herbalism, massage therapy, acupuncture, and exercise, in order to give the body a chance to heal itself. Alternative Medicine uses natural forms of treatment in order to aid the body to become successful in healing itself. Forms of Alternative Medicine can relieve pain, stress, prevent and treat illnesses and have the potential to heal and cure sicknesses and disease. I know that people are suffering and losing their lives to varies forms of diseases and cancers and many of them result to receiving conventional medical treatments but, find that the medications seem to be harsh to their bodies and too expensive. My goal is to help those searching for an alternative that would have less side effects and be more affordable. I decided to go into this field of medicine because I want to provide medicine that would not only treat the symptoms of illness and disease but actually cure the problem and allow people to live a healthier
Diabetes affects 18.2 million people in the United States. It is often referred to by doctors as diabetes mellitus and described as, “… a metabolic disease in which the person has high blood sugar …” (Collazo- Clavell et all. 2009), either because the insulin is inadequate or the body’s cells don’t respond well to the insulin. The health and economic consequences of diabetes are considerable. The majority of people that have diabetes live in low and middle income countries, where the prevalence of the disease is high. There are three types of diabetes that are called type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. Although diabetes is a disorder, it can lead to other diseases such as heart attack, kidney failure or death. A person that has diabetes has to maintain a healthy lifestyle, by eating the right diet, controlling their blood sugar level, and be optimistic.
* Aloe vera plant has been found to be favorable in the treatment of diabetes; it lowers glucose levels in the blood.
A randomised controlled trial with six weeks follow up were done. This research was randomized pre-post test. Total of 85 people patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 come as acupuncture patients in “Rungkut” private clinic Surabaya, Indonesia, from January 2013 to January 2014. After screening 73 subjects who had met the inclusion criteria were invited to participate in the study. 13 subjects dropped out because of discontinued the treatment, the reasons were too busy to participate due to work schedule conflict, family issues, feeling unwell, moved to another town. The total sample were 60 patients divide into 2 group, group control and treatment group, each consists of 30 patients. The control group is given Metformin 500mg tablet 2 times per day for 6 weeks. The treatment group is given Metformin 500mg tablet 2 times daily and acupuncture three times a week for 6 weeks, using Huanqiu steril acupuncture needles, specification 0.25 x 40 mm (1.5 cun). The acupuncture point principle use Zusanli (ST36) Location 1 finger breadth lateral to lower end of tibia tuberosity. Puncture – 1 cun perpendicularly and Taibai (Sp 3) Location - Posterior and inferior to head of 1st metatarsal bone at border of two colon of skin. Both group activities, exercise and diet as usual with no change. The age’s data analyzed using frequencies test; the gender’s data using fisher’s exact test; the education’s data using crosstab test; the duration of diabetes’ data using descriptive test; the corellation age and Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) ...
...ncyclopedia of Alternative Medicine (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 294-296). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3240100116&v=2.1&u=lincclin_bwcc&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=4067c102a22c9acaea6a4145f4e39b00
The famous spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi said, "Homeopathy cures a greater percentage of cases than any other method of treatment. Homeopathy is the latest, most refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently” (Malik). However, Homeopathy is only one of the many natural forms of treatment that patients are utilizing in an effort to avoid conventional medicine. A clinic practice model that combines conventional medicine with Naturopathic, Complementary and other forms of alternative medicine all in one setting, is the new health paradigm called Integrative Medicine. With the public’s growing concern of being over-medicated by costly and sometimes violent conventional medicine,
Every year, approximately 230, 000 to 400. 00 deaths are caused by iatrogenic deaths ( in other words, these are deaths caused by wrong medical treatments). Two of the prominent yet some what contrasting types of medicine are, Ayurveda, the Indian traditional medicine, and Modern (aka western) medicine. Both of these have their own processes and methods of healing, which over the years have created their own followers. While Ayurveda addresses the root causes of the disease through identifying the imbalances in the elements, called “Doshas”, it also emphasizes on a spiritual lifestyle which for most people in today's world is a sea change. On the other hand, western medicine addresses the symptoms and provides instant albeit temporary relief for suffering. Needless to say there are more followers of the western medicine due to its immediate impact on subsiding the pain. Out of lack of awareness to the significance of traditional medicine, especially Ayurveda, many doctors and researchers are against the use of Ayurvedic and traditional medicines, which limits the potential of curing certain ailments of patients without additional side effects.
Alternative medication is a term used to describe healing treatments that are not part of conventional medicine training. Things like acupuncture, massage therapy, and herbal medicine, are alternative medication. People consider them as out of the mainstream, which is why they got the name “alternative”. Eastern countries have a tradition of teaching alternative medication. Most of western hospitals didn’t provide any alternative treatments. Western medical schools didn’t teach them. More people in western countries are becoming more receptive to trying alternative techniques. Now many western medical schools are beginning to teach alternative techniques. Some doctors are replacing their regular techniques with alternative treatments. Alternative and complementary medicine use the same kinds of treatments. Complementary and alternative are based on the belief that a medical care provider has to treat the body, mind, and spirit. Theories are proven by scientific evidence. Alternative medical systems are entire systems and theories and practice. Experts haven’t researched many alternative techniques to tell how effective they are as treatments. Someone can get hurt if the techniques are not done correctly. Some people think its a waste of money. Treatments that work with some problems don’t work with them all. Alternative treatments all have their limitations.
Herbal remedies’ qualities are widespread availability, lower cost, effective for chronic conditions. Herbal remedies are the use of plants or plant extract to treat a person’ overall health. Herbal treatments are prominent for developing countries for instance, “in Africa up to 90% and in India 70% of the population depend on traditional medicine to help meet their health care needs” (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011), due to their low cost and availability. Herbal remedies have gained attention in the past decades, and expanding their uses due to the increased interest of natural therapies (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Herbs used on the remedies grow in the wild throughout the world, therefore making it easy to
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.