HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon
Diabetes has been described repeatedly in the ancient Chinese medical literature, and the disease has been treated with Chinese herbs for at least 2,000 years. In the Huang Di Nei Jing (1), the condition known as xiao ke is mentioned, and this is translated today as diabetes or diabetic exhaustion (the literal translation is emaciation-thirst). According to this ancient text, the syndrome arises from consuming too much fatty, sweet, or rich foods; it is said that it typically occurs among wealthy people: "you ask them to refrain from a rich diet, which they may resist." The description fits that of type 2, or insulin-independent diabetes mellitus, the most common form of diabetes that exists today. Two of the traditional formulas most frequently used in modern China and Japan for the treatment of diabetes were described in the Jin Gui Yao Lue (2), about 200 A.D. One is Rehmannia Eight Formula (Ba Wei Di Huang Tang), originally indicated for persons who showed weakness, fatigue, and copious urine excreted soon after drinking water; in some cases, this may have been diabetes as we know it today. The other is Ginseng and Gypsum Combination (Bai Hu Jia Ren Shen Tang), used more in modern Japan than China; it was indicated originally for severe thirst and fatigue and is considered ideal for diabetes of recent onset.
In 752 A.D., the distinguished physician Wang Tao published the famous book Wai Tai Mi Yao, which was a comprehensive guide to medicine (3). In it, he mentioned that diabetes was indicated by sweet urine and he recommended the consumption of pork pancreas as a treatment, implying a conclusion that the pancreas was the organ involved in the disease (he also recommended animal liver for night blindness, sheep's thyroid and seaweed for goiter, and other remedies that seemed to anticipate the results of scientific studies that would be undertaken more than a thousand years later). Further, he suggested that the urine of diabetes patients should be tested daily to determine the progress of the disease and its treatment.
Liu Wansu (ca. 1120-1200 A.D.) propounded the theory that diseases are usually caused by heat in the body, which should be countered by herbs that had a cold nature (4). His theory, in relation to diabetes, has largely been retained to the present, and the initial stage of the disease is treated primarily by herbs that clear heat and nourish yin. One of his published formulas for diabetes, Ophiopogon and Trichosanthes Combination (Mai Men Dong Yin Zi), is comprised almost entirely of herbs that have been shown by modern research to lower blood sugar. Another of his formulas, Siler and Platycodon Formula (Fang Feng Tong Sheng San), is recommended by many Japanese doctors for treatment of obesity and accompanying type 2 diabetic syndrome (5).
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/diabherb.htm
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