What is the role of alternative medicine in asthma?
There are many types of alternative therapies for asthma treatment. But none is as effective as the modern allopathic treatment. Below are the different types of treatment and their recommendation according to the “British Guideline on the Management of Asthma revised edition July 2007” Acupuncture in asthma A Cochrane review138 of 21 trials raised many methodological concerns. Only seven trials (174 patients) achieved randomisation to active (i.e. recognised in traditional Chinese medicine to be of benefit in asthma) or sham acupuncture (i.e. points with no recognised activity) for the treatment of persistent or chronic asthma. Blinding was a common problem, and only achieved for those making the observations. The difficulty in making sham acupuncture convincing and part of the holistic approach of traditional Chinese medicine was emphasised. There was wide inconsistency in methodology. Acute trials show that acupuncture has a beneficial effect, but this is less in magnitude than that
