Why do people resist blood sugar medication in favour of alternative therapies? Is it safe?
56-year-old Kritika Sharma was diagnosed with high blood sugar levels during a routine blood check up. On her family’s insistence, she consulted a doctor who prescribed her medication. But she chose not to take the prescribed medication and opted for natural remedies to control her sugar. Subsequent tests showed that she was not able to control her blood sugar levels and after five years of resistance, she finally started her medication when diabetes started to affect her vital organs.
Dr. Sunil Mishra, Director of Endocrinology and Diabetology at
Medanta shares how this is a common occurrence. “If there are no
immediate complications to begin with despite the high readings,
patients are not inclined to treat diabetes with medication. However, it
needs to be noted that asymptomatic diabetes in the long run is good
enough to create a complication. We know to a large extent type 2
diabetes is not curable. Also, scientific studies have shown that the
golden time to treat diabetes is in the first 5-10 years. This is
considered the golden period because if it's treated well from the
beginning, long term diabetes complications are low.” There are a few
people who when they lose weight (30-50% with lifestyle modifications)
may be able to reverse the diabetes.
Dr. Shraddha Bhure, Medical Director, Boehringer Ingelheim, India adds,
“Heightened awareness and debunking of myths around diabetes can go a
long way in convincing people to take appropriate measures. For
instance, some people believe diabetes isn’t a serious condition and
hence avoid medication, as they are unaware of the complications which
can occur if the disease isn’t managed correctly. Additionally, some
patients avoid diabetes medication due to a fear of side effects and
switch to alternative therapies completely. Alternative therapy options
like Ayurveda or Homeopathy can well complement in treating diabetes.
Every alternate therapy has multiple approaches to offer, but eventually
it’s the physician’s call to decide what’s best for the patient.”
Dr. Kushal Banerjee, a second-generation homeopath at Dr. Kalyan
Banerjee’s Clinic recommends that all patients should consider
homeopathy as an important option to manage their diabetes. In the early
stages, along with strict lifestyle management, the majority of
patients may be able to stop all medicines for life. He adds, “No matter
which system of medicine is taken, changes in lifestyle including diet,
meal timings, exercise, sleep pattern and management of stress are key
to improving your health.”
The journey of diabetes is lifelong, and poses risk of multitude of
complications, if uncared for. It is not about merely high blood-glucose
level, but the associated risk of complications, adverse events, and
even premature mortality, that poses priority for meticulous and
sustained care. The commonly known type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an
outcome of imbalance between the metabolic load, versus the body's
physiological capacity. Unhealthy lifestyle practices with excess
dietary calorie consumption and limited physical activity, poor stress
management, as well as genetic and constitutional factors, predispose to
the risk of T2DM and associated complications. The approach to good
diabetes-care is based on some founding principles, which may be simple
to understand but need a committed effort to sustain in the long run,
adds Dr Bhure.
Below are the ABCDEF of diabetes care:
A1c control (hemoglobin A1c represents long-term blood-glucose control)
Blood-pressure control
Cholesterol control
Diet and Drugs
Exercise and Eye-care
Foot-care
In short, diabetes-care is not a
short-walk, but a long journey of life, asking for a display of will,
motivation, and optimism throughout! It is not about the risk, but about
our actions to address the risk, which makes the difference.
But, I do know a blind girl, who was a juvenile diabetic on insulin injection, learned and started self-healing with alternative therapy- REIKI, which is based on energy- there is energy everywhere and within us also. When there is depletion of energy in any part of the body, we get sick. She started healing her whole body with REIKI and within 3 months was totally non-dependent on insulin and her blood sugar levels became normal. But, with Reiki, once your levels come to normal, one shouldn't give up healing, but continue to do so for good health forever. There are many REIKI practitioners all over the world and science has proved that the energy level around the body could be viewed as aura, which has enhanced to a greater level. Many doctors do believe in REIKI, but for some diseases, we do need the allopathy treatment along with REIKI. We always say that REIKI isn't the be-all and end-all, it gets better results when taken for some along with the tablets prescribed by the doctors. I'm a REIKI master, also a qualified teacher for Magnified Healing.