Acupuncture resulting in immediate bronchodilating response in asthma patients

[Guest guest]

Hi Dr KA Chu & All,

 

Dr Chu, many thanks for your reply. I am passing it, with your abstract

to professional acupuncture & TCM email lists.

 

Colleagues, please see:

 

Chu KA, Wu YC, Lin MH, Wang HC. Acupuncture resulting in

immediate bronchodilating response in asthma patients. J Chin Med

Assoc. 2005 Dec;68(12):591-4. Division of Chest Medicine, Department

of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386, Ta-

Chung 1st Road, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan, ROC. kachu

There are some encouraging results in the English literature that show

acupuncture resulting in an immediate improvement in pulmonary

function, but there are also studies that have not demonstrated any

benefit. We present 3 patients with persistent asthma who experienced

immediate bronchodilatation after acupuncture without the use of any

short-acting bronchodilator. After needle stimulation on selected

acupoints, clinical symptoms such as dyspnea and wheezing improved.

Pulmonary function test showed immediate improvement in forced

expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), more than 20% as compared

with baseline FEV1. Pulmonary function returned to baseline within 4

hours after acupuncture in 2 patients. From our observations of these 3

asthma patients, acupuncture may improve clinical dyspnea symptoms

and performance on pulmonary function tests. Further large-scale

controlled studies should be conducted to determine the effectiveness

of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma. PMID: 16379344 [PubMed -

in process]

 

I emailed Dr Kuo-An Chu to ask what acupoints he used. He replied:

 

Acupuncture was performed via stimulation on LU07, LI04, PC06,

ST40, LI11, and PC03. Each needle was kept in place for 10 minutes

and then removed. All procedures were completed within one hour.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Tel: (H): +353-(0) or (M): +353-(0)

 

 

 

 

Ireland.

Tel: (W): +353-(0) or (M): +353-(0)

 

 

 

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Chinese Proverb