The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

    Moxibustion to treat diabetes mellitus

    It’s commonly done in East Asian countries.

    Researchers at Kyung Hee University, in Seoul, South Korea, reviewed the evidence.

    First, the details.

    • 5 studies, all poorly designed, were available for review.

    And, the results.

    • Moxibustion + oral administration of micronase (glibenclamide, Glyburide) showed significant effects of moxibustion on control of blood sugar.
    • Moxibustion showed significant improvement in fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels vs conventional treatment.
    • Moxibustion + acupuncture showed the more favorable effects on the control of blood glucose, urine glucose, and A1c than either treatment alone in 2 studies.
    • A final observational study reported positive effects with moxibustion.

    The bottom line?

    The authors concluded, “It is difficult to conclude that moxibustion is an effective intervention for the control of type 2 diabetes mellitus due to the scarcity of trials and the low methodological quality of included studies.”

    It’s not worth the time to conduct poorly designed studies. The outcomes are meaningless.

    8/10/11 21:41 JR

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