Acupuncture for Treating Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus as Comorbidities in Patients with COVID-19

Objective: The world is experiencing challenging times caused by spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus are the most prevalent comorbidities of COVID-19. This review discusses several studies that showed the effect of acupuncture on hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus, and that discussed the mechanism of acupuncture, points used, and treatment strategies. Method: Literature was searched for studies published from 2016 to 2020 on how acupuncture affects hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus on the Google Scholar and PubMed databases using the keywords acupuncture, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Randomized clinical trials on human subjects, studies that measured systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) as outcomes, and studies that measured plasma glucose level as the outcome were included. Studies that did not include clinical effects of acupuncture were excluded. Results: Studies on hypertension (n = 2) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 2) were found. These studies suggested that acupuncture might be able to reduce SBP and DBP, fasting plasma glucose level, oral glucose tolerance, and random blood glucose level. Conclusions: Preliminary studies have suggested that acupuncture might reduce BP in hypertension and reduce blood sugar and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus. More research is required to demonstrate if acupuncture is a useful adjunct for treating hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus as comorbidities of COVID-19.