Holistic Practitioners For The Treatment Of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes has been around for millennia and it has only been recently that doctors and scientists have been able to develop medications to control the symptoms by lowering the average blood sugar. Before that, those with symptoms of diabetes needed to rely on holistic practitioners to help them stay healthy. Nowadays, people with type 2 diabetes have a choice between conventional medicine and holistic medicine to manage the symptoms and complications of this complex disease.

Holistic practitioners take a holistic approach in treating patients, and in a partnership fashion with those patients attempt to use any and all available and safe treatments to restore the patient to wellness, including, mind, body and soul.

This can mean going beyond diabetes itself, and dealing with stress, emotional issues and any other barriers that prevent the patient from being well. Typically, by returning the person to a state of homeostasis any conditions or ailments, like type 2 diabetes tend to improve as well. Overall, holistic medicine can only serve the patient to improve their overall wellbeing and therefore the state of their health.

Holistic treatments for diabetes include therapies that are not necessarily used in conventional medicine. They include lifestyle changes, dietary measures, exercise, meditation, acupuncture, biofeedback, stress reduction, acupuncture, hypnosis, and herbal treatments.
The result of these therapies can be as effective as those found in conventional medicine, and they certainly make excellent complementary therapies to conventional medical care. Even mental therapies like meditation and biofeedback can control some of the changes found in diabetes mellitus.

Some Alternative Treatments for Diabetes

There are several supplements that lay claim to helping diabetes. These include the following:

• Magnesium – Scientists have studied magnesium supplementation as a means to control blood sugar. What they have found is that magnesium deficiency is associated with abnormalities in the release of insulin so that complications of diabetes are more prevalent.
• Chromium – This mineral supplement has been found in some studies to improve glucose control in diabetes mellitus. Some studies, on the other hand have shown no improvement in blood sugars with chromium supplementation. Clearly more research needs to be done in order to see if chromium can be effective in controlling diabetes numbers. One study showed that a combination of chromium with biotin helped to improve blood sugar numbers.
• Vanadium – This is also a mineral supplement that has been suggested to increase sensitivity to insulin. Research on this supplement is not very extensive yet so that it may or may not be helpful in managing diabetes.

Yoga And Meditation

Yoga, meditation, and massage help reduce stress in the body and thereby reduce the release of stress hormones that can aggravate type 2 diabetes. By reducing stress, the body is able to use insulin more efficiently. These are some of the best therapies to manage the disease because they not only have a direct effect on blood sugar; they also improve overall health that is greatly affected by stress.

Are there plants that have an effect on blood sugar?

Some food ingredients based on plants have been found to make a difference in the blood sugar numbers and complications of diabetes type 2, these include:

• Buckwheat
• Brewer’s yeast
• Okra
• Peas
• Broccoli and similar green vegetables
• Sage
• Fenugreek seeds

These tend to be foods that contain a great deal of fiber. Fiber in the diet allows for a more gradual increase in glucose into the bloodstream so that there are no sudden spikes and peaks that indicate out of control blood sugars. Glucose is managed more easily when it is gradually sent from the gut into the bloodstream.

The biggest problem with supplements or plant foods for diabetes is that there are few studies showing their effectiveness. It is difficult to know for sure if certain substances can holistically control diabetes if the funding for studies on the matter is unavailable.

Can weight loss supplements help diabetes?

Any natural and holistic substance that can lessen your weight can secondarily affect blood sugar values and can decrease the complications of diabetes.

Some of these natural supplements include:

• Camsogia Garcinia
• Pyruvate
• Chitosan
• Chromium
• Germander
• Sauropus androgyous
• Aristolochic acid
• Momordica charanta

These are available in many forms to control appetite and reduce weight and blood sugar. There are even skin patch systems containing homeopathic compounds that have been purported to be effective in controlling appetite.

Which holistic practitioners should I see?

If you have been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and want to try holistic therapies first, you might get lucky enough to find a conventional doctor who also knows a lot about alternative medical therapies who can help you navigate the world of alternative therapies for diabetes and weight loss. If this is not possible, consider seeing a reputable herbalist that can use herbal lore and scientific research that has been found to identify those herbal products for the treatment of diabetes. Even a good nutritionist can be helpful in this regard.