Acupuncture for asthma may sound like a strange combination. One is a common disease affecting approximately 20 million Americans; the other is a mysterious, esoteric alternative medicine technique. Many people have asthma, but not many people have tried acupuncture.
However, if you are an asthma patient, sometimes there may even be anything - even a mysterious thing like acupuncture - worth a try. Breathing is something that most people never thought of. This is an unconscious process. Without us getting sick, we can easily get the oxygen we need. But for people with asthma, they always want to breathe. Asthma attacks are always possible to make them gasp. Sometimes these attacks are predictable, sometimes they are not, sometimes they are mild, easy to handle at home, and sometimes asthma patients eventually enter the emergency room. There is no doubt that some asthma patients have turned to acupuncture for asthma.
Asthma is a chronic disease that cannot be cured. There are different types of asthma, but they all produce the same signs and symptoms: shortness of breath, quick sweating, rapid heartbeat, and uncomfortable suffocation. The exact cause of asthma is unclear [there may be genetic factors], but there is no doubt that environmental factors - cold, dust, pollution, etc. - can cause asthma. During the episode, inflammation and contraction of the respiratory tract limits the amount of air that can be inhaled, and the attack can last for a few minutes or hours. As mentioned earlier, there is no cure. However, although there is no cure, people are constantly striving to find new treatments, and practitioners and patients believe that acupuncture treatment of asthma is the answer.
Acupuncture [the word comes from Latin acus, meaning needle and pungere, meaning puncture] is a very ancient medical system. The origin of acupuncture is still unclear, but it is most closely related to China. In acupuncture, a very narrow needle is inserted into the skin at some critical point in the body [just barely penetrating the surface]. These needles are said to correct inconsistencies in the flow of energy through the body, which is thought to be the cause of the disease. Traditional Western medicine has several theories about how acupuncture works [for example, it may stimulate the release of natural painkillers, endorphins], but it has not fully explained the acupuncture method.
Of course, the biggest question is, is acupuncture effective? Can acupuncture successfully treat asthma? So, unlike the explanation for how asthma works, the answer is not clear - they depend on your requirements. According to traditional acupuncturists, yes, acupuncture treatment of asthma is an effective treatment, especially for children with asthma. Dozens of websites and thousands of recommendations have proven the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma. They said that acupuncture has played other roles.
But ask the same question - acupuncture for asthma work - the answers will be very different for doctors and scientists who are trained in traditional, Western medicine and scientific methods. They say that acupuncture is an interesting phenomenon, but its working principle is not as important as it is, and their answer is not. There is no comprehensive evidence that acupuncture works on asthma, and a review of scientific research trying to answer this question has not proven that acupuncture is a viable technique for treating asthma. If it is reported that it is effective, it can be explained by the placebo effect [the placebo effect indicates that the patient may think that the drug or medical technique/procedure is effective because they think they are effective but have no measurable effect].
Can acupuncture really help people with asthma? It seems to depend on your point of view. If you think the disease is caused by a disruption in energy flow, and you are being told by an anecdote, the only reasonable answer is: give it a try and find out. Acupuncture is very safe for the treatment of asthma; serious adverse reactions are very rare. But if you are the kind of person who needs evidence in the traditional sense, then sticking to the medication/therapy you are taking may be more meaningful and waiting for a solid evidence that acupuncture can help treat asthma.
Orignal From: Acupuncture For Asthma - Fact Or Fiction?
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