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Moxibustion for managing type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review

  • Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objective

Moxibustion is currently used for treating diabetes mellitus (DM) as a non-drug intervention in East Asian countries. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion for managing the symptoms of type 2 DM patients.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, AMED, EMBASE, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, six Korean databases, and four Chinese databases. Risk of bias was used for evaluating the quality of the included studies.

Results

A total of 5 studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. All of the included studies had high risks of bias. One randomized clinical trial (RCT) compared the effectiveness of one-time moxibustion use with oral administration of glibenclimide and showed the significant effects of moxibustion on glycemic control. Another RCT tested the effectiveness of moxibustion plus conventional treatment, and the moxibustion group reported significant improvement in fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels compared with the conventional treatment group. Two RCTs compared the effectiveness of moxibustion versus acupuncture or moxibustion plus acupuncture, and the combined treatment showed the most favorable effects on the control of blood glucose, urine glucose, and glycocylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). One uncontrolled observational study showed favorable effects of moxibustion on the response rate.

Conclusions

It is difficult to conclude that moxibustion is an effective intervention for the control of type 2 DM due to the scarcity of trials and the low methodological quality of included studies. Further rigorous RCTs may be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion for type 2 DM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular and Neurologic Diseases, College of Oriental Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea

    Tae-Hun Kim

  2. Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Meridian Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea

    Tae-Hun Kim

  3. Brain Disease Research Centre, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea

    Tae-Yong Choi & Myeong Soo Lee

  4. Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, South Korea

    Byung-Cheul Shin

Authors
  1. Tae-Hun Kim
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  2. Tae-Yong Choi
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  3. Byung-Cheul Shin
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  4. Myeong Soo Lee
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Correspondence to Myeong Soo Lee.

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Kim, TH., Choi, TY., Shin, BC. et al. Moxibustion for managing type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 17, 575–579 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-011-0811-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-011-0811-2

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