Asthma and stress link explains how acupuncture may help

I don't see many asthma sufferers in my clinic. I do see many patients affected by stress, anxiety and depression. Some of these patients also suffer from asthma and often tell me that their asthma improves significantly following acupuncture treatment. I used to get surprised by this, as studies on acupuncture and asthma provide mixed results.

Now at last I think I found an explanation for this. If you are prone to anxiety, your chances of developing asthma are tripled. This is the conclusion of a study on 4000 adults published in Journal of Allergy this month. Chronic stress alters hormone levels, which can lead to inflamed airways. Acupuncture has been shown to regulate stress hormones; it is an effective treatment for anxiety.

This contributes to understanding the pathophysiology of asthma. But it also explains how acupuncture may help asthma sufferers. It may be the reason why some acupuncture treatment protocols work better than others; and help to design studies which could actually provide some hard evidence for the practice.
Image courtesy of OSW.