Jessica Kennedy - Acupuncture in London SE1

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Acupuncture for asthma

Breathing freely again

Acupuncture is often used to help asthma, which seems to be an increasingly common problem for many people. It comes in many different forms - some people find they are mostly struggling to breathe out, others more to breathe in. Some people are worse in damp environments, others in the city. For some it's seasonal, for others it's year-round. For some it's part of an allergic response, to pollen, pets, or other allergens, and for others it's related to phlegm in the lungs.

Acupuncture for asthma does not use a 'one size fits all' approach. The diagnostic process looks at you as an individual, and examines your asthma within the wider context of your health. Your asthma may be diagnosed as one of many different types, and treated accordingly, for example to support the lungs, strengthen your underlying constitution, reduce phlegm or reduce oversensitivity to allergens, as needed in your individual case.

Research

A 2003 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO)(1) found that bronchial asthma is one of the conditions "for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed."

Meanwhile a review(2) by the British Medical Journal described acupuncture as "very safe" when practiced by an appropriately-qualified practitioner.

The modern evidence base for acupuncture is incomplete, and this is true for a great many areas of conventional medicine too. The Clinical Evidence website of the British Medical Journal tells us that of the 2,500 conventional medical treatments their databases cover, 46% are of unknown effectiveness (as at October 2009)(3).

Jessica continues to witness the benefits of acupuncture for many people in her work, utilising the knowledge and practice of Chinese medicine built up over thousands of years. She's happy that more and more modern scientific research is being done into acupuncture, helping to bring it to a wider audience.

Contact Jessica

Each of us responds differently to acupuncture. Do get in touch to discuss whether acupuncture is likely to be right for you, or to make an appointment.

Other conditions

Acupuncture can help with a wide range of health problems, click below to find out more:

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Detailed references

(1) http://www.acupuncture-schools.us/national-institute-health-nih-acupuncture.cfm, referring to World Health Organisation (2002). Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trial, see http://apps.who.int/bookorders/anglais/detart1.jsp?sesslan=1&codlan=1&codcol=93&codcch=196

(2) Rampes (2001). The safety of acupuncture. British Medical Journal 2001;323(7311):467 (1 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7311.467, see http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/323/7311/467

(3) From the 'About Us' area of the Clinical Evidence BMJ website, page titled 'How much do we know', http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp. Extract at Oct 2009: "So what can Clinical Evidence tell us about the state of our current knowledge? What proportion of commonly used treatments are supported by good evidence, what proportion should not be used or used only with caution, and how big are the gaps in our knowledge? Of around 2500 treatments covered 13% are rated as beneficial, 23% likely to be beneficial, 8% as trade off between benefits and harms, 6% unlikely to be beneficial, 4% likely to be ineffective or harmful, and 46%, the largest proportion, as unknown effectiveness"