Not a one. There is a widespread back of the mind conviction among many that there exists an entire alternative medical structure (ancient knowledge, traditional approaches, …) which offers cures or treatment ordinary medicine does not. That’s a false belief, by and large. Any natural cures which worked as well as ordinary medicine would be quite prominent indeed and wouldn’t remain alternative for very long.

consider, in the case of diabetes alone, that a plant long known to help with diabetes (goat’s rue) is the source of Glucophage (metformin) and the biguanides generally. Gila monsters (the poisonous lizard from the N American SW desert) is the source of a new diabetes drug nearing approval and release for clinical use. An herb, used in cosmetics because it makes the pupil larger in small doses, is the source of digitalis, still one of the primary drugs in cardiovascular medicine.

The common sorts of diabetes mellitus (type 1 and type 2) is a condition without a cure. And it’s a real pain literally and figuratively. There is a lot of quackery and snake oil om consequence. so far, diabetes related research has earned 4 Nobel Prizes, and any advance as effective as some of the advertising claims about ‘traditional’ cures or treatments would be high on the eligible list for another.

We now understand diabetes about as well as we understand broken legs. There’s little treatment for a broken leg aside from setting it, splinting it, treating it carefully, and waiting. And for good reason. Likewise there’s good understanding of what’s going on in diabetes (type 1 and type 2) and what would be needed to fix them (mostly). We can’t do that yet, just as we can’t get a broken leg to mend in a couple of days. And that’s the state of the art in diabetes treatment, alternative included.

Someday, there’ll be a cure… Would save a bundle of money and a lot of nuisance. Support diabetes research and encourage those with research money to assign some to diabetes.