New Delhi: In India, nearly 93 million people suffer from chronic respiratory conditions, out of which 37 million people are asthmatics. Asthma is characterised by bronchial hyper-responsiveness along with chronic airway inflammation, accompanied by chest tightness, episodic wheezing, breathlessness, and cough. Asthma is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, ranking among the top 20 conditions leading to disability globally.
Apart from affecting the quality of life, asthma can lead to severe disability and even bring a heavy financial burden to patients, their families, and society. While pharmacotherapies like long-acting beta-agonists and daily inhaled corticosteroids are widely recommended to prevent any serious exacerbation and keep the symptoms under control, long-term pharmacological treatment can inevitably cause potential side effects, like adrenal suppression, liver toxicity, reduced bone mineral density, and increased risk of death.
In such a scenario, effective and safe alternative therapies like acupuncture can make a real difference. Recent studies have shown that acupuncture therapy can provide relief from asthma-related symptoms and make a difference in the inflammatory cell counts of the affected patients.
How Acupuncture Works: In acupuncture, thin needles are inserted at different points (acupoints) in the body to stimulate those areas. A review published by the journal 'Pain Medicine' in 2015, looking at present evidence and research on the definition and function of acupoints, revealed that these acupoints might sustain certain changes or release certain substances in ways that adjust the functioning of certain organs, affect symptoms of various diseases or maintain homeostasis in the body.
When the pressure points (acupoints) are activated in acupuncture with the needles, it stimulates the central nervous system to release certain chemicals into the brain, spinal cord and muscles, which regenerates the body's self-healing capacity.