A wide range of sugar-lowering products
According to the latest figures released by the International Diabetes Federation, there are currently more than 250 million people living with diabetes worldwide, and this number is expected to increase to 380 million by 2025. The fastest growing regions are Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The situation in China is not optimistic: the Ministry of Health has just released a survey on the nutrition and health status of the Chinese population, which shows that there are currently more than 40 million people with diabetes in the country.
Once you get diabetes, you will have a lifelong relationship with the disease and your quality of life will be seriously compromised. So far, the medical community has not yet found a cure for diabetes. The patients’ desire to get rid of the disease is very urgent, which provides an opportunity for certain companies to take advantage of it.
Turn on the TV, open the newspaper, filled with all kinds of sugar-lowering products: sugar-lowering capsules, sugar-lowering punch, sugar-lowering spirit, sugar-lowering oral liquid, sugar-lowering pure Chinese medicine preparation …… in a variety of ways. Some of their advertisements say that patients can get rid of the trouble of taking medication for life; some say that patients can eat whenever they want, and so on, one by one, which is very tempting to diabetics. Do these products actually work? This kind of advertisement is not credible in the end? Here, experts analyze them one by one and remind diabetic patients to beware of falling into the trap.
Trap 1: Diabetes can be completely cured
See this advertisement: “Type 2 diabetics are finally saved! Ten years of research, the culprit of diabetes is finally ‘caught’! After taking the product continuously for one course, the patient’s blood sugar will be stable and the indicators of the body will reach the clinical recovery standard, and the patient will be completely free from the entanglement of diabetes.”
This advertisement is a complete fraud, but there are patients who are repeatedly duped, and companies take full advantage of the patients’ eagerness to seek a cure by advertising that diabetes can be cured. Such advertisements are usually in the name of a scientific research institution, falsely claiming that through decades of research, diabetes has finally been overcome. It is a hard fact that diabetes cannot be cured. Although medical doctors from all over the world are making continuous efforts, there is not yet a mature and effective method that can be applied to clinical treatment. Patients should not have any illusions about this. Anyone who boasts of being able to cure diabetes at the root is a fraud.
Trap 2: Diabetics don’t need to take medication for life
There is also an advertisement that reads, “Diabetics can completely get rid of the trouble of taking medication for life! After years of research by the Chinese Nobel Prize winner in medicine, it is finally possible to free diabetics from lifelong medication. The product can comprehensively control high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, high blood viscosity and high uric acid, while eliminating diabetic complications.”
This advertisement is full of loopholes, which patients with a little common sense can recognize at a glance. First, so far, the Chinese have never picked up the Nobel Prize in medicine. Secondly, diabetes is a chronic disease and patients need to take medication for life to keep their blood sugar stable. The claim that there is no need to take medication for life is definitely a lie. Many diabetic patients expect to be free from the constraint of lifelong medication, so these kinds of advertisements are quite tempting to them. As far as we know, what can work to lower the sugar in these products is still some added ingredients of western medicine. After the patient takes it, the amount of medicine is unknown. Very easy to cause blood sugar out of control, resulting in sudden complications, the consequences are unimaginable.
Trap 3: diabetics do not need to control their diet
For ordinary people, it is not difficult to eat and drink as much as you want, but for diabetics, it is a dream. There is a commercial that features many so-called diabetics, one by one, talking about their “happy life” of eating whatever they want, gorging themselves on ice cream, cream cakes and other foods that are definitely not suitable for diabetics. At the end, these patients agreed that it was a certain capsule that made them happy to eat again.
This kind of advertisement only says in general that a certain product can regulate blood sugar and supplement insulin, and will not name its ingredients specifically. In these products, the active ingredient is still some glucose-lowering western medicine. The product usually requires the patient to take a large amount for a short period of time, so after the western medicine works for a short period of time, the patient’s blood sugar will not rise immediately if he does not control his diet. However, for diabetic patients, it is meaningless to lower sugar in the short term, the key is to keep blood sugar stable, and this product fundamentally destroys the basis of blood sugar control for patients. Diabetic patients should bear in mind that controlling the diet is part of the treatment and cannot be replaced by taking any product.
Trap 4: Ancestral secret recipes can cure diabetes
In view of the fact that Western medicine has not been able to cure diabetes completely, some people have started to play the “Chinese medicine card”. One type of advertisement usually says this: Ancestral secret recipe, pure Chinese medicine preparation, long-term use of non-toxic side effects; 30 minutes after taking the medicine, can quickly reduce sugar.
Practice has proved that Chinese medicine in China has a certain role in the treatment of diabetes, and patients can go to regular Chinese medicine hospitals for treatment if they need it. However, those so-called Chinese medicine preparations that claim to be some kind of ancestral secret recipe are not credible. As far as we know, those “ancestral secret recipes” are not secret at all, and it is not a secret in the industry that different western medicine ingredients are added to them all.
Some Chinese medicine, such as thirst pills, where the addition of Western medicine is approved by the state, in its published list of main ingredients can be seen in a component called “glibenclamide”. However, it is illegal to add western medicine to traditional Chinese medicine without state approval, so patients are reminded not to trust any secret recipes or prescriptions that add unknown ingredients to these medicines, and the side effects will be even greater after taking them.
Scientific treatment of the five horses to remember
If the blood sugar is high, we must honestly take drugs to lower blood sugar. Do not hope for the so-called sugar supplements. When we see diabetic patients, we will not recommend any other nutritional products except vitamin C and vitamin E, which have antioxidant effects, and calcium tablets. Of course, we do not rule out the fact that some supplements can, to some extent, lower blood sugar and regulate blood lipids. However, patients should be reminded that any nutraceuticals play only a supplementary role in the treatment of diabetes and cannot replace drugs.
Patients should consult their doctors before taking them
Experts agree that the first thing to do is to believe in science and understand that diabetes education and psychotherapy, diet, exercise, blood glucose monitoring and medication are the five horses that are inseparable from each other in the treatment of diabetes, and must be driven in tandem in order to pull the “chariot” of victory over diabetes.
It is not easy to pull this “chariot”. Diabetic patients need three parts medicine and seven parts nourishment, so it is also called “family disease”, patients need to be in the family life conditioning, need every member of the family to help, adhere to the treatment. The health knowledge of diabetic patients in China is really too little, and it can be said that a majority of patients are still in a state of considerable “ignorance”. This also provides the ground for the emergence of the “four traps”. If patients can learn more about the relevant knowledge, not only will they not be deceived, but as long as the “five carriages” run, the quality of life of diabetic patients can be guaranteed, and it is very common to live happily to a hundred or eighty years.