DIABETES, COMPLEMENTARY ANDALTERNATIVE THERAPIES

DIABETES CORNER
By Dr Olubiyi Adesina, Consultant
Diabetologist, fbadesina@gmail.com,
08034712568
On various Television stations, Radio
stations and other media across the
country, Nigerians are being inundated
with advertorials by self styled ‘Doctors’
promoting the efficacy of certain remedies
that act as a ‘cure all’. Some of the
remedies are touted to improve libido,
cure diabetes, cure an enlarged prostate,
cancers, warts, help you to lose weight in
an almost magical manner and achieve
overall good health. Such advertorials
also include the ‘testimony’ and other
anecdotal reports from individuals who
have used such remedies. These
‘testimonies’ serve as very effective tools
to convince the unwary that he or she, irre­
spective of educational status, needs to
use such a remedy. The scientific
community needs much more proof than
what is currently made available in order
to know the truth about the safety and
efficacy of such remedies.
The presence of such alternative therapies
have quite complicated the diabetes
treatment landscape, not only by the
unproven but highly touted ‘efficacy’ of
such therapies but also by the avidity
with which numerous individuals with
diabetes in and out of Nigeria cling to
such therapies. One of the downsides of
the use of alternative therapies in Nigeria
and elsewhere is the increasing incidence
of kidney and liver failure following the
use of such alternative therapies. Most
times, the practitioners of this form of
therapy are very secretive about their
products and do not make them available
for scientific scrutiny.
Complementary therapy refers to
therapeutic and diagnostic disciplines
outside conventional medical practice
which are used alongside conventional
medicine while alternative medicine is
used instead of conventional medicine.
These two forms of therapy, though
around for decades, have gained further
ground in Nigeria in the last two decades
through widespread and unregulated
advertisement.
Individuals with diabetes must be
educated about which of such therapies
may be of some benefit and those with ab­
solutely no proven value. As evidence
becomes available to the scientific
community about the efficacy of some of
these complementary therapies, they can
then be absorbed in into the main
diabetes treatment armamentarium.
A whole wide range of complementary
therapies are currently available in
Nigeria which are expensive, of unproven
efficacy, unknown safety profile which are
being used by people with diabetes
instead of their orthodox/conventional
therapy.
It is strongly advised by healthcare
practitioners worldwide that instead of
individuals with diabetes buying expensive
dietary supplements that contain vitamins
and other micronutrients, they should
invest in eating a very balanced diet and
their conventional anti-diabetic agents.
Individuals with diabetes who wish to use
remedies aside from that prescribed by
their healthcare workers are advised to
discuss such use with their Doctors.
Majority of the proponents of alternative
therapies do not possess strong clinical
credentials and often misapply infor­
mation from scientific literature. A strong
case in point is the over celebration of
staphylococcus in Nigeria by the combi­
nation of outright falsehood and half
truths.
It is an incontrovertible fact that a lot of
conventional drugs used nowadays to
treat diabetes and other diseases are de­
rived from herbs. A vivid example is
Metformin which is the most used anti-
diabetic drug worldwide which was
derived from French lilac plant, a
traditional remedy for the disease. The
onus is thus on herbal practitioners in
Nigeria and elsewhere to make their
products available for scientific proof.
Before the efficacy and safety of currently
used herbal remedies are proven
scientifically, one can only advise that
such remedies are taken with a pinch of
salt.
Orthodox medical practitioners must
make it a point of duty to ask individuals
with diabetes that they attend to whether
they use any form of complementary or
alternative therapy, especially in those
whose blood sugar level control is poor.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, one
must again say that the safety of these
alternative therapies is a serious cause
for concern.
For now, it is still good to keep an open
mind about these therapies as they may
be proven in the future to be effective and
safe, but until then, one will strongly
advice that individuals with diabetes stick
with their orthodox medications. The
burden of scientific proof rests with the
practitioners of these therapies.