Treatment as Prevention: A Review of the Use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in High-Risk Diabetic Foot
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63623/th2dwv31Keywords:
Diabetic high-risk foot, External Chinese medicine treatment method, Treatment of undiagnosed disorder, ReviewAbstract
Diabetic foot (DF) has emerged as one of the most common chronic consequences of diabetes mellitus, characterized by prolonged disease duration, high treatment costs, a poor prognosis, and a high disability rate. Diabetic high-risk foot is the early stage of diabetic foot, the “disease prevention” of “treating no disease”, which provides a critical window for clinical prevention and treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has emphasized the importance of preventive health care since ancient times. External therapies such as acupuncture, massage, acupoint injection, foot bath fumigation, and moxibustion have the advantages of simplicity, precise efficacy, and fewer side effects in preventing and treating diabetic high-risk foot. The multidisciplinary synergistic model formed by TCM complementary therapies and modern medical treatments, such as nutritional, peripheral nerve, and blood glucose regulation, provides new ideas for establishing standardized prevention and treatment protocols. In this paper, studies related to TCM-related complementary therapies for diabetic high-risk foot are systematically reviewed. Current evidence shows that commonly used traditional Chinese medicine external therapies have different effects on improving high-risk feet in the elderly. TCM fumigation has the best effect on improving nerve conduction velocity in high-risk feet. In the future, biological research can be strengthened to explore the specific mechanism of action.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Meilan Li, Jie Ji, Lifeng Ma (Author)
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