More and more children are suffering from asthma these days. This disease now affects one in four children and many adults. The airways constrict during an asthma attack.  The mucosal lining becomes inflamed causing chest pain, cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

Attacks can be set off by different factors including stress, exercise, perfume, animal dander, pollution, and cigarette smoke. There are no symptoms between attacks although there are some asthma sufferers who tend to develop chronic breathing difficulties during intervals of an asthma attack.

In the event of an attack, metered dose inhalers (MDIs) are usually carried by sufferers to address their breathing problems. These MDIs are made up of different bronchodilatory drugs to quickly open the airways preventing a full blown attack and to enable normal breathing.

In extreme cases, drugs are regularly taken for prevention – the most common asthma drugs used are inhaled corticosteroids. However, when taken for a long period of time, these medications can cause a variety of side effects including oral thrush, hoarse voice, osteoporosis, and weight gain among others. This is not a cure but merely a long term drug – the symptoms will typically return if drug use is halted.

Chinese Medicine Treatment for Asthma

The Chinese medicine strategy offers a natural treatment for asthma to address the root cause of the problem, including the symptoms. Treatment is utilized to strengthen the system as a whole as well as the Lungs. From time to time, based solely on what your symptoms are the kidneys and the other organs are involved.

Asthma treatment for acupuncture (or tui na massage/acupressure) helps fortify the Lungs and reduces andwheezing. It can also help clear phlegm, reduce stress and improve immunity.

Nutritional evaluation can also be used to identify any food problem that could contribute to the problem. Small modifications in diet usually lead to the treatment of stuffiness and abundant phlegm in the throat.

Lastly, breathing exercises through qi gong can help reinforce the treatment by boosting lung capacity and espousing more control over one’s own breath. These exercises can even be more beneficial by taking control over your breath. Practicing qi gong on a regular basis can help regulate your breathing, help strengthen the body, and reduce stress.

Childhood asthma usually responds to these treatments extremely well, especially when it is caused by frequent or long term antibiotic use, which is a common cause of asthma in people.

For several asthma related conditions, acupuncture can be an ideal form of treatment. In a lot of instances, people experienced much needed asthma relief and deeper respiration after 5 minutes or so of treatment. Outcomes may differ, and more significant relief may require six to a dozen sessions on average. Whatever the case, in several instances, acupuncture is a great way for you to enjoy an active life and improve your breathing.

By stimulating the flow of energy and blood in the Lung meridians, acupuncture can open up constricted energy pathways, lessen wheezing and enable deeper respiration without any side effects whatsoever. In a lot of cases where asthma conditions are complicated and long standing, Chinese herbal formulas can be used along with acupuncture treatments. Moxibustion and other forms of asthma treatments can also be used to warm and stimulate acupuncture points in order to increase energy to the lungs and beef up the circulation and flow of energy.

The lungs in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine have a close association with the Kidneys. On several occasions, an acupuncturist may utilize the energetic channels of the kidneys as well as the lungs to facilitate a positive outcome of the treatment. The site of the needle placement will depend on the style of the acupuncturist and on the training of the practitioner. There are specific acupuncture styles, like the one I practice, in which distal acupuncture points are used to effect a healing response. The needles can be inserted in the elbows, wrists, or ankles. In the end, I would just like to state say that each person’s body and health is different and so will be each person’s experiences. You may need to discover for yourself if acupuncture truly works for you as it worked for billions of people throughout the centuries.

Treating asthma with acupuncture has been a practice used for thousands of years in China and other parts of East Asia. Even if modern medicine is able to effectively address the symptoms of asthma, and in certain instances, can even save lives, it still has no cure for this disease.

Asthma is more than the symptoms of breathing difficulties, sneezing, coughing, and wheezing, it also involves the other aspects of your body including your immune system which may be too weak ward of the allergens that trigger your asthma.

There are many uses to acupuncture including its promotion of general wellness. Acupuncture enhances the strength of your body to make it more capable to withstand the toxic effects of pollution. This multi-purpose treatment has been used for thousands of years and it is anchored on the principle that the entire body is electrically interconnected. Acupuncturists believe that diseases such as asthma are due to the imbalanced flow of “chi” (the body’s life energy) circulating throughout body. Chi flows through energy channels known as meridians and when a meridian develops a blockage, an acupuncturist is needed to identify the location of the blockage and then to clear out the blockage that will result in the resolution of the imbalance and the treatment of the condition.

It takes a licensed and qualified acupuncturist to be able to insert needles gently in the body to help restore balance and clear out the factors causing the imbalance. If done in the right manner, acupuncture can beef up the respiratory system to make the body more resilient to asthma attacks when the flow of energy is balanced, the body functions healthily making it more capable to combat disease.

A lot of patients will start to see results almost immediately after several rounds of acupuncture treatments. But if you want results that will last for a really long time, you need to regularly go for treatment until your asthma has been entirely cured. Acupuncture works best if it is used as a complementary treatment for medications.