Objective To observe the effect of herbs of cleaning away heat,drying dampness and invigorating spleen on insulin resistance and TNF-? of the patients with early stage of type 2 diabetes mellitus.Method Eighty-eight patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were randomly divided into 2 groups.Forty-four cases of the treatment group were treated with herbs of cleaning away heat,drying dampness and invigorating spleen,and 44 cases of the control group were treated with metformin.The data of their weight,glucose,insulin and TNF-? before and after treatment was compared.Results Glucose and insulin of two groups declined(P