Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease with a multitude of effects on different organ-systems. Its chronic nature makes it a challenging disease for patients to manage. Today, patients have access to many different types of conventional therapies for diabetes, each with a different mode of action and side effects. Despite the wide range of therapeutic agents available today, patients seek help from complementary and alternative medicine. The decision to use complementary and alternative medicine by patients stems from some of the harmful side effects of current conventional therapies, as well as their desire to find measures that will help them to manage their disease. Complementary and alternative medicine includes several modalities ranging from dietary components such as vitamins and herbal supplements to mind-body interventions such as yoga, meditation, and massage therapy. Here we review the use of complementary and alternative medicine including Ginger, Cinnamon, and Camellia sinensis leaf tea, and their effects on glycemic indices in diabetes.

Growing evidence has made it obvious that early intervention in patients with Achilles tendon rupture extensively affects the prognosis. This requires the use of easily accessible imaging modalities such as ultrasound in establishing accurate diagnosis of tendinopathies so that early therapeutic decisions can be made. Ultrasound allows for assessment of tendons in a dynamic real time setting. Physicians can interact with patients and receive feedback regarding the symptomatic area, and assessing the tendon from different angles while under stress. It also offers a faster method to diagnose Achilles tendon rupture and therefore provide early intervention. Furthermore, ultrasound is a safe, non-invasive, and a patient friendly method that has become less expensive, portable, and a faster imaging modality to diagnose tendinopathies. In this paper, we review the application of ultrasound in diagnosing Achilles tendon rupture and comparing it with other imaging modalities, after thoroughly studying the current literature.