Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy and the Risk of Vascular Complications in Patients With Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

With an increasing use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), evidence of long-term benefit with adjunctive TCM treatment is limited. This study investigated whether the concurrent TCM treatment reduces the risk of vascular complications in T2DM patients by using a large population from National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).We identified 33,457 adult patients with newly diagnosed T2DM using anti-diabetic agents from a random sample of one million beneficiaries in the NHIRD between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2011. We recruited 1049 TCM users (received TCM over 30 days with a diagnosis of T2DM) and randomly selected 4092 controls as the non-TCM cohort at a ratio of 1:4 frequency-matched by age, sex, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and index year. We investigated the prescription pattern of TCM and conducted a Cox proportional hazards regression to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) of stroke, chronic kidney diseases (CKD), and diabetic foot between the 2 cohorts.In the TCM cohort, the prescription pattern of TCM was different between insulin and noninsulin patients. The most common herbs were Dan-Shen (Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae) in noninsulin group and Da-Huang (Radix et Rhizoma Rhei) in insulin group. The most common formulae were Liu-Wei-Di-Huang-Wan in noninsulin group and Yu-Quan-Wan in insulin group. Although no significant reduction in the hazard ratio of CKD and diabetic foot, the incidence rate of stroke was 7.19 per 1000 person-years in the TCM cohort and 10.66 per 1000 person-years in the control cohort, respectively. After adjustment of age, sex, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and antidiabetes agent use (including sulfonylureas, α-glucosidase, metformin, meglitinide, thiazolidinediones, and insulin), TCM cohorts were found to have a 33% decreased risk of stroke (95% CI = 0.46–0.97; P < 0.05).This population-based retrospective study showed that the complementary TCM therapy might associate with the decreased risk of stroke in T2DM, suggesting TCM as an adjunctive therapy for T2DM to prevent subsequent stroke.

The effect of alogliptin on pulmonary function in obese patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled by metformin monotherapy

“…Fifth, with an increased use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in T2DM, the complementary TCM therapy might decrease the risk of stroke in T2DM. [41] In the future, we will observe the effect of TCM on pulmonary function in obese patients with T2DM. Finally, lung damage in T2DM will affect quality of life.…”

Administration of Traditional Chinese Blood Circulation Activating Drugs for Microvascular Complications in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

“…In recent years, Chinese medicine has made a breakthrough in the treatment theory of diabetes [27]; significant evidence exists which supports the thought that TCM interventions can independently treat diabetes [28–30], and numerous studies have demonstrated that traditional Chinese blood circulation activating drugs have obvious advantages in the prevention and treatment of diabetic microvascular complications [31–33]. However, more research is needed to explore their mechanisms.…”

Traditional Chinese Medicine Use among Patients with Psoriasis in Taiwan: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

“…It has been commonly used for dermatitis [13], gastrointestinal disease [14], rheumatoid arthritis [15], diabetic mellitus [16, 17], gynecological disorder [18], and cancer [19, 20] patients. Previous studies showed that CHM plus acitrerin had add-on effect [21] and Chinese herbal bath combined with phototherapy was superior to phototherapy alone [22] for psoriasis.…”