Western Medicine’s Approach to Diabetes
After being diagnosed with diabetes, doctors practicing Western medicine typically prescribe treatments involving a combination of medications, diet, and exercise. For those with type 1 diabetes, regular insulin injections are required as well.
Prescription medications are essential for the treatment of diabetes from a Western point of view, unfortunately, these medications often carry negative side effects.
For example, medications such as Metformin, which help the body regulate blood sugar and respond to insulin, can have challenging side effects such as diarrhea and flatulence. The FDA recently determined that Canagliflozin, a drug used to lower blood sugar, causes an increased risk of leg or foot amputation. In addition to those challenges, diabetes drugs such as Pioglitazone and Januvia can increase the risk of bladder cancer and thyroid cancer. Not only do these drugs have negative side effects, but they are sometimes ineffective as well. In fact, up to 10% of patients stop responding to type 2 diabetes medications each year.
With these ineffective and sometimes dangerous interventions, despite Western medicine’s best efforts to cure diabetes, incidences of the disease continue to rise. Ayurveda provides an alternative approach that can be taken alongside your current, doctor-recommended, for managing diabetes that is both effective and safe.