The author of this article: Li Yunrui | chief physician of the Department of Internal Medicine, Beijing Ditan Hospital, affiliated to Capital Medical University
Diabetes is a very common non-communicable chronic disease, with 1 in 10 people on the mainland having diabetes. Because the incidence of diabetes is very high, and most of the patients are middle-aged and elderly, various scams about diabetes are also emerging, and many patients are so convinced of it that many people not only lose money, but also lose their health.
Scam One: Cure Diabetes
The reason why many diabetics fall into various scams, the most attractive deception is to cure diabetes, whether it is cured through ancestral secret recipes, or various health care products, new technologies, etc., the main focus is to cure diabetes, then diabetes can really be cured?
Diabetes mellitus is generally divided into type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and secondary diabetes. Secondary diabetes we may not hear much about, it is mainly caused by the cause of its disease diabetes, such as tumors of the pancreas and so on.
Among the four types of diabetes, gestational diabetes gradually returns to normal as the pregnancy ends. A special type of diabetes, after eradication of the cause, blood sugar will slowly return to normal. But type 1 and type 2 diabetes are lifelong diseases that require lifelong medication and are almost incurable.
The diabetes that most of us suffer from is type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, and special diabetes is still relatively rare, so most people's diabetes is incurable [1].
Scam two: Diabetics can't eat staple foods
For diabetics, we all know one thing, that is, if you want to control blood sugar reasonably, you must strictly control the intake of carbohydrates, and many diabetics are doing this, is this really correct?
In fact, in recent years, the diet analysis of diabetic patients has found that the amount of sugar taken by diabetic patients with mild disease has increased from 45% to 85%, and the condition of diabetic patients has not only not worsened, but also improved their glucose tolerance.
If the carbohydrate intake of diabetic patients is too low, it will inhibit the release of insulin by the patients themselves. Moderate intake of carbohydrates will increase the sensitivity of islet tissue.
Of course, this is not to encourage everyone to eat with an open stomach, but to remind everyone to arrange a reasonable diet structure and follow the principles of high fiber, high carbohydrate, and low fat diet. Carbohydrates should be the main source of calories, accounting for 50 to 60% of the total calories in the diet [2].
Scam three: insulin, hypoglycemic drugs are dependent
Many people say that insulin is dependent, as long as it is used, it can not be stopped, so even if the blood sugar is high, it is refused to use insulin.
Our common diabetes type 1 diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes mellitus, of which type 1 diabetes is due to insufficient secretion of its own insulin and needs to rely on exogenous insulin to maintain life. Type 2 diabetes is a comprehensive disease, mainly due to external environment and genetic reasons. If the blood glucose is relatively high at the time of onset, after a period of insulin therapy, when the blood glucose control is within a reasonable range, the insulin can be replaced by drug treatment, but as we mentioned above, most people's diabetes is a lifelong disease, and if you want to control blood sugar smoothly, you need lifelong medication, not because of the dependence of hypoglycemic drugs [3].
Scam four: Diabetics eat sugar-free snacks
Every time I go to Daoxiang Village to buy snacks, the waiter will ask, do you want sugar alcohol? The so-called sugar alcohol snack refers to the process of making, the white sugar is replaced by maltitol. Because maltitol does not cause a rapid increase in blood sugar in the body after consumption, diabetics can eat it with confidence [4].
However, there is a point to remind everyone that even if no sugar is added, the raw material of the sugar alcohol snack is still flour, the ingredient is carbohydrate, if the intake is uncontrolled, eating too much will still lead to an increase in blood sugar.
Scam five: Western medicine hurts the liver and kidneys, and Chinese medicine has a better effect on diabetes
Any drug approved for marketing is more accurate in efficacy and has undergone strict clinical trials, so adverse reactions and side effects are within the safe range, and the probability of major adverse reactions is extremely low.
However, relative to Traditional Chinese Medicine, hypoglycemic research still lacks reliable clinical data, and Chinese medicine also has the theory that it is three points of toxicity, so Chinese medicine does not mean that it is harmless, and due to the lack of large-scale clinical research, what kind of adverse reactions are unknown.
Scam Six: Health supplements control blood sugar
In the Food and Drug Administration Law, it is clearly stipulated that health care products cannot promote the efficacy of treatment. If there is a promotion of therapeutic effects, it is a product that violates the law.
So, don't believe that any of the health supplements advertised on it can lower blood sugar. Some health care products with a certain hypoglycemic effect are definitely ingredients that add a variety of powerful hypoglycemic drugs. Rapid hypoglycemia is very unfavorable for diabetics.
Scam Seven: Natural Insulin
In various popular science articles, the claim that natural insulin is very popular, claiming that various plants have hypoglycemic effects.
It is true that in some animal experiments it has been found that after injecting bitter melon extract into mice, it has a certain hypoglycemic effect.
But we need to know that this is completely different from the blood sugar that we can eat, and the effect of plants after cooking and after laboratory extraction is very different.
Therefore, everyone should not be superstitious about various natural insulins, or let the bitter melon quietly be a vegetable.
Scam Eight: High-tech Technology to Treat Diabetes
With the continuous development of science and technology, the deception of scammers has also evolved, and there are more and more diabetes scams that are woven from various high-tech fields. Common are: gene therapy, nanotechnology, repair of islet function and other technologies and treatment methods. So whether these treatments have a certain therapeutic effect
First of all, let's talk about gene therapy, for type 1 diabetes, it is an autoimmune disease, the cause of the disease is relatively simple, if the gene therapy is carried out, it is very promising to reverse. But type 2 diabetes is a comprehensive disease, and there are many genes associated with the disease, and in modern medicine, there is no way to take one drug and change multiple genes. Therefore, gene therapy is not yet likely.
Again, nanotechnology is very hot now. The author has studied a large number of literature, and has not found any breakthroughs in nanotechnology in the treatment of diabetes. Therefore, if you want to rely on nanotechnology to treat diabetes, it is not yet possible.
Finally, let's talk about whether the islets can be repaired. If there is really a technology that can repair islets, nothing need be said, it will definitely sensationalize the world and win the Nobel Prize. However, there is no literature research and academic reports on the repair of islets, so there is still a long way to go to repair islet cells.
Remind diabetic friends, do not believe in folk remedies, miracle drugs and other rumors, must follow the doctor's instructions, scientific medication, formal treatment.
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[4] Su Yong,Huang Baoping,Wang Li,Yue Jinrang,Wang Limin,Zhao Zhigang. Effect of maltitol on blood glucose in diabetic and non-diabetic populations[J].Journal of Pharmaceutical Forum,2012,33(05):25-26.