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Diabetes mellitus (DM), especially type 2 DM, is a major public health concern that affects about 34.1 million people in the United States.1 This chronic health condition, if not properly managed, can cause long-term complications as well as considerable morbidity and mortality in the affected population.2 In 2018, an estimated 1.5 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in U.S. adults aged 18 years or older, with more than half of these new cases in adults aged 45 to 64 years old.1
With an increasing number of diabetes cases, clinicians also are encountering more patients who are turning to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to help control their glucose levels. In a 2015 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience and Pharmacist Roles, 35% of 26,157 respondents in the study reported the use of at least one herbal medicine.3 In all, 3,050 respondents had diabetes, and 41.2% of the respondents reported the use of a dietary supplement.3 The data revealed that respondents with diabetes were associated with higher herbal medicine use when compared to respondents without chronic diseases (41% vs. 34%, P < 0.001).3 The results also showed that herbal medicine use increased as age increased among the respondents.3
Since CAM products are regulated as dietary supplements by the Food and Drug Administration, the effectiveness and safety of these products are regulated after they are available in the market, which means the quality and safety of these supplements can be highly variable.4 As more people with diabetes are reporting their use of CAM products in conjunction with prescription medications, it is important that clinicians understand what role these products play in diabetes management with the available evidence. By reviewing the current evidence behind these alternative therapies, medical practitioners will be better equipped to distill information for their patients and address the utility of these proposed diabetes supplements. This review will try to explore and present the current literature on commonly used herbal and dietary supplements among people with diabetes.
METHODS
An electronic literature search was performed on the American Diabetes Association website based on the recommendation from the American Association of Diabetes Educators (now named Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists) to discover what had been...