Weight loss therapy with acupuncture effecting HbA1c levels Dr. Feriyde Çalışkan Tür Diabetic...

Weight loss therapy with acupuncture effecting HbA1c levels

Dr. Feriyde Çalışkan TürDiabetic Medications Conference, 2015, Las Vegas

Tepecik Training and Research Hospitalİzmir, Turkey

Diabetes and HbA1c

• It's one of the most common chronic diseases effecting the world population.

• Exact cure of this disease is unfortunately not possible, however it can only be kept under control.

• HbA1c; routinely used to estimate elevated blood sugar levels

• Objective parameter is measured to determine the efficacy of diabetes management.

Diabetes and Obesity

• A metabolic problem; the pathologic changes is increase in body fat due to displacement in glucose metabolism.

• Much of them are in prediabetic state.• Obesity; it shows a growing trend and almost 20% of the

population in OECD countries (up to 35% in some) • It poses a serious threat to public health in the 21st

century and is addressed as an urgent international problem.

• WHO's diabetes work focuses on healthy diet and regular physical activity for reducing the growing global problem and progression of the disease.

Treatment of Diabetes and Obesity

• Direct control of the disease by only these factors is difficult and not always possible

• Researches on alternative approaches such as acupncture gains importance

• WHO has reported that acupuncture can also be used as an adjunctive treatment for obesity.

Acupunture

• Balance and maintaine the life energy or 'Qi' (circulate through ‘meridians’ in the body).

• The stimuli may produce changes through neural and hormonal mechanisms.

• The study which supports acupuncture therapy effectiveness for both obese and diabetic patients:

• The effectiveness of acupuncture was monitored with HbA1c, BWR and BMI improvement

Acupuncture Therapy and HbA1c• Total of 20 sessions over 10 weeks that

were delivered for weight loss therapy.

• Before treatments; blood was drawn for measuring the hormonal and metabolic status,and HbA1c levels.

• Weight and height were measured for calculating BMI.

• 8 points on the ear • 7 points on the body

Acupuncture Therapy and HbA1c

• Based on; TCM points for digestion and psy-chologic effects (stomach, pancreas, hunger, Shenmen, liver);

• Others were based on points related to modern Western medicine pathophysiology

• Dietician to consume low carbonhydrate diet and exercise were adviced but not monitored.

• Patients were instructed to continue all of the irregular medical treatments/medications, and provided for healty eating habits.

Acupuncture Therapy and HbA1c

Acupuncture treatment and HbA1c

Results 1

• Metabolic health is a more important determinant for diabetes development than simple obesity

• Diabetes was the most common metabolic condition in our patients, present in 38% of subjects: several previously undiagnosed diabetics were identified.

• HbA1clevels dropped significantly more in diabetics than non-diabetics (0.6 ± 0.7% and 0 ± 0.2%,respectively)

• In non-diabetics with normal HbA1c lev-els, acupuncture treatments caused no change in the levels, as acupuncture is not expected to cause a deviation from normal physiologic status.

Results 2

• Literally, vildagliptin was shown to reduce HbA1clevels by 0.7% over 8 months (other medications by 0.5-2%).

• HbA1clevels in our diabetic patients fell a similar amount (but fell more quickly) as those of diabetic patients on medical therapy in previous studies.

• Mean reduction in BMI was not significantly different between the diabetic and non-diabetic patients (2.8 ± 1.5% and 2.6 ± 1.8% respectively)

Results 3

• HbA1c levels fell a mean of 0.6%-1.3% in obese diabetics, after 10-12 weeks.

• There are no much study on this effect.

• Chine's literature have some study...

• First findings shows acupuncture treatment can be utilized for obese and diabetic patients with monitoring HbA1c as an indicator of its effectiveness.

• Our results confer reductions in weight, BMI and HbA1c levels after 20 sessions acupuncture therapy for obesity (and therefore to diabetics?)

• Alternative approaches such as acupuncture gains importance for diabetes control.

Conclusion