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Acupuncture Treats Asthma and Alergies Acupuncture is incredibly effective in the treatment
of asthma and allergies. There is often some coexistent digestive
problem in children with asthma such as poor appetite, abnormal
stools, bloating and abdominal pain and these are reduced as well
when the child or the adult is treated with acupuncture. There is
an increasing body of evidence in the western medical literature
about the usefulness of acupuncture for the treatment of acute brochospasm
and in improving breathing over the long term. There has been a definite increase in the number
of cases of asthma in children reported in this country. There has
been much speculation and hypothesis as to why this is so. Air pollution
is blamed and there are some who have suggested that our children
are somehow less healthy than they used to be. One of the more worrisome
hypotheses is that asthma is being overdiagnosed. The people who
suggest this have suggested that this may be due in part to the
changing nature in the way that medicine is practiced in this country.
With the advent of HMO's and large medical groups, children no longer
have a single physician who knows them intimately and who has watched
them grow. It is not uncommon for a child to develop a small amount
of wheezing and reactive airway disease in the face of an acute
upper respiratory infection. A doctor, or a nurse, or a nurse practitioner
or a physician's assistant who may have never seen the child before
will hear some wheezing and make a diagnosis of asthma and start
the child on medicines and inhalers. Once a child is started on
these medications, they seem to never come off of them. Thus, a
child who may have had some transient wheezing as part of an acute
infection becomes labeled as asthmatic. The inhalers and the medications
create a certain dependency which makes it difficult for the child
to ever come off of them. So the theory goes. There is not a child or an adult with asthma that
I have treated that has not responded in a significant way to acupuncture.
The amount of medicine they need is always reduced, and many are
able to come off of medications entirely. It is important to note
that the results of the treatment are not transient. Many of the
people that I have treated have responded and after a period of
treatments have remained healthy with no evidence of wheezing or
reactive or inflammatory airway disease. Given the epidemic of asthma that seems to be sweeping this country, techniques such as acupuncture which offer benefits but no risks are important tools for doctors to be aware of and to utilize. There are some children who have truly serious reactive airway disease and who require these medications and who, in fact, might not be alive without them. But there are a large number of other children and adults with much less severe disease who respond wonderfully to treatment with acupuncture. The drugs that are used are not benign, and some of the side effects include changes in mood, behavior, appetite and sleep habits. Return to Acupuncture Home Page
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