Acupuncture for Asthma?

A disease causing chronic inflammation of the airway, asthma’s symptoms include tightness in the chest, coughing or wheezing, and shortness of breath. Its severity varies in each individual and can also vary with each episode. According to the Asthma Society of Canada, asthma affects approximately three million people.

While there is no known cause, several factors including heredity and environmental factors, may contribute to its development. Inflammatory (allergic) triggers of asthma are those which produce an inflammation of the respiratory system’s air passages or a tightening of the muscles surrounding them. Inflammatory triggers include animal dander, dust mites, pollens, moulds, viral infections, and pollutants in the air. Symptom (non-allergic) triggers can lead to aggravation of these symptoms but do not produce inflammation of the air passages on their own. These include exercise, exposure to smoke, cold air, chemical pollutants, additives in food, air pollutants and emotional triggers.

While there have been conflicting reports in the past as to the effects of acupuncture for treating bronchial asthma, a more recent randomized, controlled study on the immunomodulatory effects of acupuncture in the treatment of allergic asthma by Joos et al found that 79% of the patients treated with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) acupuncture indicated an improvement in general well-being following the twelve treatments as compared to 47% in the control group. As well, the TCM acupuncture group showed significant changes in lymphocyte and cytokine concentrations whereas the control group showed no significant changes apart from a rise in the CD4+ cell count.

Based on this study, asthma patients who receive acupuncture benefit from this treatment when given in conjunction with conventional asthma therapy. In addition, significant immune-modulating effects were attributed to TCM based acupuncture. (Joos et al., J Altern Complement Med. 2000 Dec;6(6):519-25).