Hi Samantha

I heard this same report from a course participant at an Advanced course I was teaching last weekend. One of their college athletes is a type 1 diabetic and experiences blood sugar drops in response to dry needling.

Screen to you know your patient's medical history and co-existing diagnoses, make sure they know their diabetes numbers before treatment, be aware and educate the patient that blood sugar could drop in response to dry needling, take action to monitor and mitigate blood sugar drops.

I do not have any literature to share regarding diabetic responses to dry needling. 

The discussion in class did also generate this response from a participant who is an insulin dependent type 1 diabetic:

"cortisone injections cause a significant increase in blood sugar for several days after injection"

"if A1C is high orthopedists will choose not to inject with cortisone at all because of the risk for further increase in blood sugar"

There is much more to learn. 

Sonya

Samantha,

There’s no direct evidence or studies that I have seen that show dry needling causes hypoglycemia, but given its systemic impact, transient drops in blood sugar or symptoms mimicking them are plausible, especially in vulnerable populations like diabetics. It is standard in our "get ready to get dry needling" patient education that all patients should hydrate and eat something before treatment - low blood sugar can effect anyone and can be again exacerbated by the strong neurologic response DN provides-  in the majority of cases this response is positive and why we do it.  The effect of DN on glucose levels certainly warrants more study and proper pre treatment preparation, and education but not a reason in my opinion, to not treat diabetic patients.

Frank