Many diabetic patients feel very easy to sweat after the disease, and some of this sweat is “strange”: half of the body sweat, half of the sweat, a meal sweat, or sweat sticky yellow, some people think that the body is weak after diabetes and sweat more; some feel that they are too fat, a little movement will sweat; and some only Some people think they are too fat and sweat when they move a little; others only care about the level of blood sugar and don’t care about the abnormal sweating. Li Wei, Department of Nephrology and Endocrinology, Nantong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine
In fact, during the development of diabetes, abnormal sweating is an important organismal signal of diabetic vegetative neuropathy (one of the complications of diabetes), and 60% of diabetic patients will eventually develop sweating disorders. Decreased or cessation of foot sweating is one of the earliest manifestations of diabetic phyllo-neuropathy, heavily involving the lower extremities and lower body, while increased sweating in the upper body, including the head, chest and back, often with profuse sweating, may be a compensation for decreased sweating in the lower body. In addition, patients may exhibit a variety of sweating abnormalities such as hyperhidrosis, oligohidrosis, restrictive hyperhidrosis, and gustatory hyperhidrosis (profuse sweating of the neck and full head within minutes after eating, which can be stimulated by certain foods), which are classified as sweating evidence in Chinese medicine.
The treatment of this disease in modern medicine is not yet available with specific drugs, and anti-cholinergic drugs are available for postprandial hyperhidrosis, while the advantages of TCM treatment are very obvious. According to TCM, abnormal sweating is only one of the complications of diabetes. Diabetic complications also include macrovascular disease (vascular damage) in the heart, brain, and lower extremities, and microvascular disease (luo damage) in the eyes, kidneys, and nerves. As the pathological basis and basic core of the disease, all of them can be accompanied by poor blood flow and blood stagnation, so the basic method of treatment is to activate blood, resolve blood stasis and open the ligaments throughout the treatment process. On this basis, we can treat each patient according to the overall concept of evidence-based treatment, clearing heat, nourishing yin, warming yang, tonifying qi, or resolving dampness, etc., which can significantly improve the symptoms of abnormal sweating and delay the progress of diabetic vegetative neuropathy.
In the treatment of abnormal sweating in diabetes mellitus, regardless of whether the blood glucose is well controlled or poorly controlled, as long as the evidence is accurate, the addition of Chinese medicine can significantly improve the symptoms and has a considerable auxiliary effect in lowering blood glucose. If the blood glucose is still high after the addition of herbal medicine, we can consider adjusting the dose and type of oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin. Our experience is that through the combination of Chinese and Western medicine, blood sugar is well controlled and abnormal sweating symptoms can often be improved quickly. Patients who have diabetic sweating symptoms should be careful not to sweat when the wind is blowing and not to sweat in and out of water, otherwise it is easy to catch a cold and make blood sugar fluctuate and aggravate the disease. In conclusion, diabetic sweat evidence can not be slow, treatment can not just focus on “sweat”, but should be considered with blood sugar control and other complications, so as to control and improve the symptoms, minimize the suffering of patients, improve the quality of life of diabetic patients. The symptoms of diabetic sweating are different and so is the Chinese medical treatment. Once abnormal sweating occurs, one should ask a TCM practitioner to prescribe medication as soon as possible, and the problem will be solved soon.
This article was originally published in the hospital newspaper “Apricot Garden Spring”.