Quackery in Diabetes – Time to Act

Abstract

Diabetes irrespective of its type is a lifelong disease, and when left undiagnosed, untreated, or poorly controlled, diabetes leads to severe complications predominantly arising from persistent hyperglycemia along with other contributing factors including hypoglycemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. With the complexity of therapies, the necessity of monitoring and the daily routines to be followed along with diet and lifestyle modifications, most patients are worn out at some point and move to unproven easy remedies. Several systematic reviews have been published that assessed the impact and efficacy of various “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) therapies on preventing and treating diabetes. CAM practices and practitioners, underdeveloped research, poor quality of clinical trials, false claims and fake publicity, absence of proper communication with health practitioners, etc., are all known to be contributing risk factors toward the failure of CAM therapies. It is crucial that health-care professionals be aware of the increase in the number of patients who resort to CAM practices. With the use of CAM therapies among diabetes patients being prevalent, care providers are encouraged to consider their potential risks and benefits. Modern health-care practitioners need to be aware of these practices and be prepared to counsel such patients, when needed, about the available options. They should be able to assess as well as present information to the patients regarding the expected risks, side effects, benefits, and choices regarding self-management and the cost to the patient, helping them to make an informed choice. This review article brings up the issues concerning the scientifically unproven practices with a focus on the population with diabetes.