Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Prevention and Treatment of Diabetic Male Sexual Dysfunction Based on the "Kidney Stores Essence" Theory in Huangdi Neijing

Diabetic male sexual dysfunction is a common chronic complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus, mainly manifested as decreased libido, erectile dysfunction and ejaculatory disorders. Simple symptomatic intervention with Western medicine can hardly reverse the damage to gonads, blood vessels and nerves fundamentally, accompanied by limitations such as poor long-term efficacy and prominent adverse reactions. Huangdi Neijing establishes the core theory of "kidney stores essence", proposing that the kidney governs reproduction and kidney essence serves as the foundation of reproductive function. Meanwhile, it fully elaborates the pathological chain of metabolic disorders consuming kidney essence through the discussions on "wasting-thirst disease" and "spleen-dampness disease". Taking the theory of "kidney stores essence" as the main line, this paper combines modern endocrinological and andrological clinical studies, integrates the theories of seasonal health preservation, preventive treatment of disease and staged syndrome differentiation recorded in Huangdi Neijing, sorts out the integrated Chinese and Western pathological mechanisms of diabetic sexual dysfunction, and constructs an integrated prevention and treatment scheme of "stabilizing blood glucose to consolidate the root, tonifying the kidney and replenishing essence, and staged conditioning". Studies have demonstrated that synergistic intervention of integrated Chinese and Western medicine can stabilize blood glucose, repair vascular and nerve injuries, improve sex hormone secretion, invigorate the spleen and kidney, soothe the liver and activate blood to consolidate kidney essence. It can block reproductive injuries in the prediabetic stage in advance, delay sexual function decline in the middle and late stages, and provide theoretical basis of traditional Chinese medicine and feasible clinical approaches for standardized full-cycle prevention and treatment of this disease.