Acupuncture Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.

Area of Science:

• Integrative Medicine
• Endocrinology
• Metabolic Diseases

Background:

• Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) significantly impacts patient quality of life.
• Conventional hypoglycemic drugs for T2DM often cause adverse reactions.
• Acupuncture is a traditional therapy increasingly used for T2DM management, but optimal regimens remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the clinical efficacy of various acupuncture therapies for T2DM.
• To identify the most effective acupuncture regimens for improving key diabetes-related indicators.

Main Methods:

• A systematic review and meta-analysis of 139 randomized controlled trials involving 12,231 T2DM patients.
• Searched eight databases up to December 2, 2024.
• Data analyzed using Stata 15.1 and R 4.2.1 software; bias assessed with Cochrane RoB2.0.

Main Results:

• Body acupuncture + conventional treatment (CT) best improved fasting blood glucose (FBG) and HbA1c.
• Auricular acupuncture + CT most effectively reduced 2-hour postprandial blood glucose (2hBG).
• Laser acupuncture + CT showed benefits for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), fasting insulin (FINS), and overall response rate.

Conclusions:

• Acupuncture therapies, including body, auricular, and laser acupuncture, can effectively improve T2DM-related indicators.
• These specific acupuncture modalities appear advantageous for T2DM management when combined with CT.
• The low quality of included studies necessitates further high-quality research to confirm these findings.