Acupuncture and Allergic Asthma

Researchers in China have shown that acupuncture has regulatory effects on mucosal and cellular immunity in patients with allergic asthma, and it may be a suitable adjunctive therapy for such patients.

One hundred patients with allergic asthma and seventy-four with chronic bronchitis, received acupuncture three times per week for five weeks, using acupuncture points specific to asthma. After treatment, concentrations of immunoglobulins (antibodies) in the saliva and nasal secretions of the allergic asthma patients, were found to have decreased significantly; also lower were the numbers of activated T-cells (lymphocyte cells involved in specific immune responses) and eosinophils (cells whose numbers increase in allergic hypersensitivity conditions like allergic asthma or hayfever) in the peripheral blood circulation. Although there were no significant changes in the bronchitis patients, some trends indicating a benefit of treatment, were observed.

(Considerations for use of Acupuncture as Supplemental Therapy for Patients with Allergic Asthma. Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology, on-line 3 June 2012.)

Author: Robin Costello

I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training. I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.