World Diabetes Day 2020: traditional Chinese medicine can cure Type 2 diabetes, not just control it, doctor heading Beijing hospital says
- A traditional Chinese medicine doctor believes the pancreas of Type 2 diabetics can be regenerated to make insulin, and says he cures half the patients he sees
- However, a specialist at another Beijing hospital is sceptical traditional Chinese medicine can cure diabetes, but says there is evidence it helps control it
While Western medicine sees diabetes as an incurable disease that requires lifelong insulin injection and other medicines to keep it under control, traditional Chinese medicine doctor Shao Changchun begs to differ.
“Most other hospitals in China combine Western and Chinese medicine to treat diabetes. From my knowledge, we are the only one in China which only uses Chinese medicine to treat it,” he says.
In his three-decade career working in hospitals in Yangquan, Shanxi province, before his relocation to Beijing three years ago, the 55-year-old practitioner came to see the pancreas, even a severely damaged one, as an organ capable of regeneration.
Shao adds: “Our hospital only treats Type 2 diabetes, as Type 1 diabetes means the pancreas is completely damaged. Its patients must receive insulin injections to stay alive.”