Did you know that diabetes was first mentioned in Chinese Medicine literature thousands of years ago? In fact, the earliest record is mentioned in the early Han Dynasty, 1st Century BCE. Diabetes was known as Xiao Ke and was characterized by persistent thirst and hunger, copious urination and weight loss. In Chinese Theory diabetes was a causative factor of genetics or too much fatty, sweet or rich oily food.
Diabetes mellitus is a syndrome of impaired insulin secretion and/or resistance of cells and tissues to the influence of insulin (1). Severe health conditions can arise from complication of diabetes mellitus such as:
There are two types of diabetes:
Type 1 – usually occurs during adolescence (known as juvenile onset or insulin dependant). Type 1 is usually associated with an auto immune or infectious destruction of insulin producing B cells in the pancreas.
Causes:
Once the destruction has caused few B-cells to remain functioning and insulin levels are too low to maintain blood glucose control, a need for insulin must be replaced with injections due to pancreatic dysfunction (1,2).
Type 2– is a resistance of target cells to the influence of insulin (1). This can cause high levels of insulin in the blood with insulin cell receptors becoming insensitive with glucose not being transported into cells resulting in high glucose levels in the blood stream causing hyperglycaemia (1,2). Type 2 is usually more present in middle age adults and has a very strong link to obesity but may remain asymptomatic for a long time before a diagnosis is made.
Potential Causes:
Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes Mellitus:
If you have diabetes, your Acupuncturist at Vyne Health will do a thorough health screen of your current and previous health history and investigate your current dietary and lifestyle habits in order to effectively design a treatment that may be able to assist you and your current health care plan. The main areas of focus are on the internal organ functioning and the relationship of qi and blood in relation to the Lung and Spleen, Heart and Kidneys. Your practitioner will also investigate if there are any other accompanying patterns of disharmonies such as blood stasis or phlegm present upon your individualised diagnosis. In order to understand your diagnosis we also take into consideration other factors such as diet and medications, constitutional factors, emotional factors, exhaustion, overwork, pregnancy or associated diseases. It is important to note, acupuncture does not treat the disease of diabetes. Acupuncture may be able to assist with management of symptoms i.e pain, stress, fatigue or nausea associated with some autoimmune conditions in consultation with other treating health practitioners.
If you would like to know if Acupuncture may be able to help with the management of your diabetes in conjunction with other health strategies and practitioners – contact us a call on (07) 5515 0409. We look forward to meeting and helping you.
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