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.

Acupuncture: Reduced anxiety, less depressed, reduced cravings

Acupuncture for Women With Concurrent Substance Use and Anxiety/Depression
In this controlled trial, women receiving acupuncture reported

• having reduced physiological cravings for substances,
  
• felt significantly less depressed, less anxious, and
  
• were better able to reflect on and resolve difficulties
  

than women in the control group.

It was found that auricular acupuncture, as an adjunct therapy to a comprehensive psychoeducational treatment program for women with addictions, shows promise in being an effective, more viable treatment alternative to anti-anxiety drugs anxiolytics.


This study was published in Family & Community Health April/June 2007 Volume 30 Number 2 Pages 112 - 120.