A new Cochrane review of studies of the impact of Chinese herbal medicines on preventing prediabetes. It concludes that,

Meta-analysis of eight trials showed that those receiving Chinese herbal medicines combined with lifestyle modification were more than twice as likely to have their fasting plasma glucose levels return to normal levels (i.e. fasting plasma glucose <7.8 mmol/L and 2hr blood glucose <11.1 mmol/L) compared to lifestyle modification alone (RR 2.07; 95% confidence intervall (CI) 1.52 to 2.82). Those receiving Chinese herbs were less likely to progress to diabetes over the duration of the trial (RR 0.33; 95% CI 0.19 to 0.58)

You can find the abstract, here:

Chinese herbal medicines for people with impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting blood glucose Suzanne J Grant et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD006690 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006690.pub2

 

You are going to be hearing a lot about this from practitioners of alternative medicine so it is important to add the REST of what the researchers concluded, which was, "all trials had a considerable risk of bias and none of the specific herbal medicines comparison data was available from more than one study."

What this means is that the studies were done by people with a stake in the outcome--i.e. people selling the product. That's the "risk of bias"--and, in addition, that each study evaluated a different herb.

So what the review really found was this. Studies conducted by people selling particular herbs find them dramatically effective. With this in mind, the Cochrane researchers conclude more study is needed.

Would you like to read the whole article? Click here!

 

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