According to a study conducted by the Nethersole School of Nursing, about 60% of the patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 suffered from poor sleep, which was significantly related to poor glycaemic control. The study also showed that auriculotherapy is a feasible treatment to improve the sleep quality and glycemic control of patients with diabetes.

The research first assessed the sleep quality of 548 diabetic patients with questionnaires. About 60% of them reported poor sleep. Their average hemoglobin A1c level (blood glucose level) was 7.49%, much higher than the optimum level for diabetic patients (6.5%) and that for a normal person (4–5.9%). Then, 60 randomly chosen patients with poor sleep were evenly divided into two groups. One group received auriculotherapy treatment for three months. A total of 20% of the patients who had received auriculotherapy reported complete recovery from sleep disturbance. And the average blood glucose level of auriculotherapy recipients dropped by 0.2%.

Prof. Doris Yu (photo), associate professor of the Nethersole School of Nursing, said 'We are glad to see the encouraging results confirming the potential of auriculotherapy as a clinical treatment for diabetes. The study has provided fresh evidence to suggest that the integration of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in clinical practice has beneficial effects on patients with diabetes.'

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