Suche
Mein Konto
Case Study: Acupuncture for Gestational Diabetes
A 34-year-old pregnant woman in her sixth month came to me worried about how her newly diagnosed gestational diabetes might affect her baby's long-term health. She had not previously suffered from diabetes, although she explained that her father had had type 2 diabetes since his forties. She did not have high blood pressure, was not overweight before pregnancy, and did not have any of the other risk factors for gestational diabetes. This was her third baby and she had no problems related to her two previous pregnancies. The patient had fatigue and occasional back pain in the late afternoon/evening and complained...
Case Study: Acupuncture for Gestational Diabetes
A 34-year-old pregnant woman in her sixth month came to me worried about how her newly diagnosed gestational diabetes might affect her baby's long-term health. She had not previously suffered from diabetes, although she explained that her father had had type 2 diabetes since his forties. She did not have high blood pressure, was not overweight before pregnancy, and did not have any of the other risk factors for gestational diabetes. This was her third baby and she had no problems related to her two previous pregnancies.
The patient experienced fatigue and occasional back pain in the late afternoon/evening and also complained of feeling a bit cold in the evening. She said before she became pregnant, she always maintained good eating habits but didn't exercise much. Part of her concern with gestational diabetes was that, in this case, exercise didn't help regulate her blood sugar levels, and she was worried about taking too much insulin. She also wanted to prevent her baby from gaining too much weight in the uterus and potentially having other complications.
As she had been told by her doctor, I explained that taking insulin during pregnancy cannot harm the baby, but she still hoped to minimize the amount she needed to take. I explained that acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine could help regulate her blood sugar levels, but that she should continue to follow her doctor's advice and monitor her levels and also take insulin as directed by her specialist.
She visited me once a week for acupuncture and Chinese herbs. My approach aimed to strengthen the spleen and kidney energy systems (capitalized words here indicate differentiation from their scientific definitions) to combat fatigue and control their blood sugar levels by supporting their digestive system (i.e. their spleen) much more efficiently.
Her pulse was choppy and slippery and also a bit weak. Since she had been having occasional back pain lately and tended to feel a little cold in the evenings, I attributed these signs to mild kidney deficiency, possibly caused by a third pregnancy. We used points like DU 20, BL 17, BL 20, BL 23, ST 36, KD 2, KD 6.
The herbal formula used in this case was You Gui Wan, which was intended to tone her deficient kidneys to support her spleen and improve the efficiency of her digestive system. In this case, the lower energy and feelings of cold indicated a Kidney Yang deficiency.
Within two months, the patient was able to manage her gestational diabetes well with treatment almost once a week and usually only needed insulin injections at night. In her last month of pregnancy, her specialist advised her to reduce the amount of insulin she was using and we were also able to reduce our frequency of treatments.
She came back to me two months after birth and was happy to say that her baby was in great health and that her own blood sugar levels were back to normal and she would no longer need insulin.
Inspired by Richard Lobbenberg