Patient's question:
Does gestational diabetes with a 2-hour post-meal blood glucose level of 7.2 require hospital insulin treatment?Doctor's answer:
Analysis of the Condition:Diabetes treatment is a comprehensive approach, and dietary control, exercise, and medication are all essential. Only with the coordination of dietary control and exercise can medication achieve effective blood sugar reduction. Otherwise, even the best medication may be ineffective. Some patients are unaware of this and believe that after starting medication, they can eat more without consequence, attempting to compensate for overeating by increasing medication dosage. This is very unwise. The result of such behavior is detrimental to blood sugar control, can easily lead to weight gain, worsen insulin resistance, and also increase the burden on the pancreas, accelerating the decline in β-cell function.
Guidance:
Neither Western medicine nor traditional Chinese medicine has yet found a cure for diabetes. The primary reason may be that type 2 diabetes is a multifactorial disease caused by the interaction and joint participation of multiple genetic and environmental factors. While Western medicine is significantly more effective in treating individual aspects, when it comes to complex diseases involving multiple contributing factors, it is objectively true that traditional Chinese medicine plays a certain role in preventing and treating chronic complications of diabetes. However, in terms of blood sugar reduction, traditional Chinese medicine is far less effective than Western medicine (I have seen cases where blood sugar was well-controlled solely through traditional Chinese medicine).