Alternative medicines for diabetes: what to think about first

Summary

In this light-hearted conference talk from 2020, Dr. Om asks a serious question: why do so many people with diabetes take, or want to take, alternative medicines? Many people in India do, often alongside their prescribed treatment.

To explain, he imagines launching his own herbal diabetes product and shows how it could be sold using common thinking traps:

• Anchoring. Comparing the price or benefit with something chosen to make the product look good.
• Confirmation bias. Calling a product scientifically validated on the strength of one small study.
• Loss aversion and framing. Describing modern medicines only by their rare side effects, and ignoring the much larger number of people they protect from complications.
• Survivorship bias. Showing only the people who say they did well, and not those whose sugar got worse.

He points out that a lack of documented side effects is not the same as safety: herbal products have been linked to liver injury, and heavy-metal contamination has been reported in some traditional preparations in India. The biggest hidden cost is time lost while sugar stays high.

The message is not to hide what you take. Tell your doctor about any supplement or remedy, and do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own. Track your progress with your HbA1c and read the honest guide on diabetes remission.