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Response of Blood Glucose Levels to Acupuncture in Type II Diabetes Don Snow is a member of PCOM's first graduating class of the Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. He defended his capstone research in January 2006 and this article is a summary of his research capstone. Diabetes mellitus is a disease of growing concern worldwide. It manifests when the body doesn't produce enough insulin or when the insulin it does produce is not properly used within the body. Insulin is a pancreatic hormone that helps regulate the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats. It especially regulates the conversion of glucose to glycogen, promotes protein synthesis, and the formation and storage of neutral lipids (The Compact American Medical Dictionary, 1998). People with diabetes have high medical costs. They visit their physicians more regularly, and they also make more outpatient and emergency room visits than their non-diabetic counterparts. This constitutes about 12 percent of all healthcare expenditures in the United States (American Diabetes Association, 2002). In the United States alone, there are over 18 million people affected by this disease, and there are millions of people who are not aware that they have the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also stated that diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death listed in U.S. death certificates in the year 2000. Heart disease is the leading cause of diabetes related death, and diabetes is also responsible for high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, nervous system diseases, amputations, and many other diabetes-related problems. The cost attributed to diabetes in the United States is approximately $132 billion. Biomedicine does not yet understand its cause, but attributes both genetics and environmental factors as causative (Merck, 1999). These factors may include obesity and lack of physical exercise. Asian medicine categorizes this disease into three main patterns affecting different areas of the body. These three patterns are concerned with the upper, middle, and lower jiaos. It must be noted that both Eastern and Western medicines recognize excessive thirst, excessive hunger, and polyurea as key signs and symptoms of this disease. There are two major types of diabetes: Type Type II and I. Type I diabetes is caused by pancreatic failure to produce insulin. Type II diabetes is caused by the body's resistance to the insulin it does produce. This means that the body fails to properly use the insulin it produces. People with a fasting blood glucose level of 126 mg/dl or higher are considered to have diabetes. Biomedicine attempts to control glucose levels either through the use of insulin therapy, or through the use of oral ant diabetic drug therapy. In Type II diabetes, weight control is particularly important. At the current time, there appears to be a paucity of research efforts aimed at eliciting the efficacy of alternative medicine, specifically acupuncture and Asian medicine, in treating diabetes and diabetes related health problems. Statement of the Problem: Purpose of the Study: The study consisted of a double-blinded experiment using paired measurements. The initial pre-test measure was the baseline blood glucose measurement taken immediately before the proposed acupuncture point prescription. The post-test consisted of the blood glucose measurement taken immediately after the conclusion of the acupuncture intervention. The outcome variable was the change between these two measurements. The outcome variable demonstrated whether or not the point prescription lowers or otherwise alters blood glucose levels in Type II diabetics. Research Hypothesis: Theoretical Assumptions: Traditionally, wasting and thirsting illness has been divided into three types in accordance to the area of the body that exhibits the most pathology. These areas are the upper, middle, and lower burners. If one of these areas is affected more than the others, the patient will exhibit specific signs and symptoms. For example, thirst for the upper burner, hunger for the middle burner, and polyurea for the lower. In TCM, there are essentially three causes of diabetes. The first is jing deficiency. In biomedicine, this could be synonymous to a genetic predisposition. The second cause is the over consumption of alcohol and/or greasy, fatty, and sweet foods. These can interfere with the functions of the spleen/pancreas and stomach. The accumulated food transforms into internal heat, which consumes fluids, thereby contributing to thirst and hunger (Wiseman and Feng, 1998). Not only does internal heat consume the body fluids, but it also damages the yin. When this happens, the lungs and kidneys are not properly nourished. This leads to more heat and yin deficiency as this cycle begins to feed on itself, burning up the substance of the body (Bensky/Barolet, 1990). A third possible cause of diabetes in TCM theory is long-term emotional problems. It is said that over-thinking damages the Spleen/Pancreas while anger and frustration leads to liver qi constraint. This often transforms into Fire, which then consumes the yin of the lungs and stomach (Bensky/Barolet, 1990). When the patient becomes yin deficient, both internal and environmental stressors can transform into kidney fire. This presents as polyurea, cloudy urine, dizziness, backache, blurred vision, itching skin, and skin ulcers. The tongue will be red with little or no coat, and the pulse will be rapid and fine (McDonald and Penner, 1994). However, in modern day Unites States the practitioner will seldom see untreated diabetes. Therefore, these yin deficiencies will probably not be seen because the patient has controlled diabetes. For this study, an empirical point prescription will be used for each patient with diabetes. These points are Weiguanxiashu (M-BW-12), Shenshu (UB 23), and Taixi Response of BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS to Acupuncture in TYPE II DIABETES Donald J.Snow, Jr., DAOM ©, MPH, MS, L.Ac. In the United States alone there are over 18 million people affected by this disease, and there are millions of people who are not aware that they have the disease (Ki 3). Because acupuncture is a functional medicine, the hypothesis infers that pancreatic function or cellular uptake of insulin will take place during acupuncture treatment. Description of Subjects: Control Group - Not only did each subject serve as their own control, but six of the subjects served as another, formal control. These control subjects pre-tested, and then sat for thirty minutes and re-tested. The re-test blood glucose levels then served as the pre-test, and the patient was then treated using the protocol with a needle retention time of thirty minutes. The patient was then post-tested, and the outcome was noted. The control subject was tested a total of three times, as opposed to two times for every other subject. Outcome Summary: A two-tailed student's t-test was performed on the data. From this statistical analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that the acupuncture protocol used for this study does lower blood glucose levels in Type II diabetics regardless of length of disease, age of subject, and number and type of medications the subject takes. While it did not work on all test subjects, it did work on the majority of subjects, and it did so with a power of more than 0.88. Don Snow Jr., DAOM ©, MPH, MS, L.Ac.started his education in Oriental medicine at Pacific College, an Diego and received his Master of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine in 2002.Prior to obtaining this degree, he received a Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Medical School of Public Health and his Bachelor of Science from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
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