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Asthma Sufferers Might Try Alternative Therapies

Posted on: Monday, 23 May 2005, 15:00 CDT

BODY BOOSTERS

* Some use herbs, acupuncture to complement medical treatments

Some 15 million people in the United States have asthma, a serious chronic disease of the lungs caused by swelling in the airways.

Many people depend on inhalers and other medications to help ease their symptoms. Others are turning to alternative and complementary medicine to try to find relief, despite studies about asthma and supplements that have been unable to find any proof of benefit or harm.

In addition to herbal supplements, acupuncture, applied kinesiology, diet and exercise are some of the ways people can deal with asthma and allergy issues, according to Dominic Stape, a doctor of Oriental medicine in Albuquerque.

There are different types of asthma, and the triggers are different for everyone, says Stape. An important first step is to identify the triggers, such as stress, exertion or allergies.

Stape performs a free consultation to help determine whether acupuncture and kinesiology might be beneficial.

If acupuncture looks like a viable approach, Stape performs a series of treatments. The goal, he says, is "to reduce the frequency and severity of asthma attacks in hopes that we can reduce the sufferer's dependency on the medication."

He compared asthma with a kinked hose. "If you kink a hose, you're blocking water from getting to the plant and it eventually will wither and get malnourished," he says. Acupuncture unkinks the hose, so to speak, by removing barriers or stagnation that are keeping the lung tissues and cells from being nourished.

Stape says he never advises asthma patients to suddenly stop their prescribed asthma medication. "We tell them to ask a medical doctor. We don't want to do anything too fast," he says. "If we can reduce their dependency along with the medical doctor's advice, we can get back quality of life for that person."

Prone to infection

One of the ways asthma affects quality of life is by making a person more susceptible to illness. "What happens is the body's immune system is compromised, so a person's overall wellness is compromised as well," Stape says. That can make a person more prone to colds, bronchitis and pneumonia.

Asthma also can prevent people from being able to get outdoors and hike, play with their kids in the back yard and participate in sports, Stape says. Some asthma sufferers have trouble sleeping.

Another possible complementary treatment is applied kinesiology, in which a practitioner can evaluate a patient's nerve and lymphatic systems, nutritional state and flow of energy along acupuncture meridians.

"You can tell, for instance, if the lungs are implanted with some type of virus, bacteria, parasite, whatever it may be," Stape says. "And when we know that, we have a choice of supplements to use to find the one that's best for that individual."

Stape also can recommend diet and lifestyle changes -- including stretching and exercise -- that can help alleviate asthma symptoms.

Stape's practice, Natural Life Acupuncture and Kinesiology, 9809 Candelaria NE, offers workshops on the Buteyko Breathing Method, developed by a Russian doctor who asserted that asthma is basically due to overbreathing, which causes patients to lose too much carbon dioxide from their system.

The technique is a series of breathing exercises and behavioral changes intended to improve health by changing the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in exhaled air. Stape says he has seen "dramatic improvement" in his patients who have used the method.

One study in Australia showed that at the end of three months, participants had a 90 percent decrease in bronchodilator use, a 41 percent improvement in symptoms and a 54 percent increase in quality of life, he adds.

Another possible asthma treatment involves dietary supplements. Stape often creates a combination of herbs customized for each patient.

Yoga and relaxation techniques, hypnosis and biofeedback also have been touted as possible treatments.

A large portion of the population is affected by allergies, with such symptoms as watery eyes, runny nose, headaches, sinus pressure, mental fogginess, fatigue, sneezing and coughing, Stape says. Acupuncture can be especially effective for those symptoms, he says, though he adds that results vary for each patient.

Experts warn asthma patients to be careful about alternative or complementary therapies.

According to the Asthma Initiative of Michigan, no long-term studies have been done on the effects of the Buteyko technique. The American Academy of Asthma and Immunology reports that some supplements may interact with certain medication used to treat asthma and that certain medical conditions may increase the risks of side effects of herbal supplements.

E-mail questions about supplements and alternative medicine to Patricia Gabbett Snow at bodyboosters@aol.com or send them to Albuquerque Journal Boomer, P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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