Can Chinese Herbal Medicine Be Useful in Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus? A Systematic Review of Medicinals Used and Clinical Impact

Purpose: With Diabetes Mellitus (DM) on the rise, biomedicine has identified its treatment as challenging due to the multitude of interventions necessary for disease management1. Biomedical treatment utilizes a single action approach, placing patients in the care of one specialist at a time. The traditional Chinese Herbal Medical approach can be of great utility to DM patients administered by a single practitioner aiming to address whole body imbalances. This project synthesized available research discussing Chinese Herbal medicine in the treatment of T2DM via PubMed. Methods: Systematic review was used to search PubMed database October 2022-April 2023 leading to eventual retrieved sample of 30 articles. Search terms included Chinese Medicine AND Diabetes Mellitus OR Chinese Medicine AND Type 2 Diabetes with the filters of clinical trial, open access, in English. Results: Thirty articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Chinese herbal medicines have been extensively researched appearing in multiple forms such as pills, single herbs, granules, and decoctions. Of the 30 studies, the most reported outcomes were reduced fasting blood glucose, reduced HbA1c, and improved glycemic control. Conclusions: Further research is necessary to capture the role of Chinese herbal medicine in the integrative treatment of T2DM patients.