Alternative therapies useful in the management of diabetes: A systematic review.

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder in the endocrine system. This dreadful disease is found in all parts of the world and becoming a serious threat of mankind health. There are lots of chemical agents available to control and to treat diabetic patients, but total recovery from diabetes has not been reported up to this date. In addition to adverse effects, drug treatments are not always satisfactory in maintaining euglycemia and avoiding late stage diabetic complications. Alternative to these synthetic agents, plants provided a potential source of hypoglycemic drugs and are widely used in several traditional systems of medicine to prevent diabetes. Several medicinal plants have been investigated for their beneficial effect in different type of diabetes. Other alternative therapies such as dietary supplements, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, and yoga therapies less likely to have the side effects of conventional approaches for diabetes.

J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2011 Oct;3(4):504-12. Pandey A, Tripathi P, Pandey R, Srivatava R, Goswami S. Department of Pharmacy, Institute of Technology and Management, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.