TCM and Nutrition for Diabetes Care Cohort

Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of more than two thousand years in China for treating diabetes based on the theory of "medicine and food homology". Modern pharmacological research and clinical research have shown that proprietary Chinese medicines and Chinese herbal decoctions have the advantages of overall regulation and fewer side effects for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and its complications. Meanwhile, dietary intervention is essential for the treatment of diabetes. In a clinic of Hangzhou, China, Chinese medicine doctors use a special Chinese medicine formula combined with dietary intervention to treat diabetes, and achieve good therapeutic effects without obvious adverse effects. The diet treatment plan is based on the results of the patient's food tolerance test, and dietary recommendations are provided based on the food glycemic index. In the first week of the treatment, patients are limit carbohydrate intake. Patients are evaluated every one month, and are instructed to choose foods rich in fiber and low glycemic index to reduce blood sugar fluctuations. Every patient is followed by one nutritionist, who provides dietary instructions for the patient. Patients use fingertip blood glucose to detect postprandial blood glucose. One course of treatment is three months, all patients will be treated for one course in this study. During the treatment, the dosage of western medicine hypoglycemic drugs was adjusted according to the Chinese Diabetes Prevention and Control Guidelines. Both Chinese medicine prescriptions and nutrition prescriptions were followed for the treatment to work towards the direction of drug injections-only oral drugs-drug reduction-drug discontinuation-drug discontinuation and stability-cure. Baseline information of demography, lifestyle, diet, physical activity, comorbidity, medication history, and so on is collected when patients enter the clinic to receive treatments. Meanwhile, the saliva, stool, fasting blood, fasting urine samples are collected. During the treatment, the dietary information is collected through photos taken by patients themselves. The saliva, stool, fasting blood, fasting urine samples are also collected when the patients re-enter the clinic for reexamination at the first week, and every one month.