The Effects of Vitamins, Herbs and Acupuncture to Asthma
- Sunday, July 26, 2009, 11:28
- Asthma
- 383 views
Andrew:
I have a question about supplements. Anyone with a chronic condition always wonders about vitamins or herbal remedies, alternative medicines–where do they come into play?
Dr. Shapiro:
There isn’t a lot known about any positive value of vitamins for asthma or allergic disease. People try all sorts of things. Unfortunately, the alternative medicine world hasn’t done a lot of good controlled trials to see what these agents do compared to sugar pills or placeboes. So I try to have an open mind, but I still have to be kind of pessimistic about the lack of evidence or benefits from vitamins.
Andrew:
Now how about acupuncture? You know, we’ve heard about people using acupuncture for back pain or headache. What about for a respiratory condition?
Dr. Shapiro:
There is a recent paper in one of the pediatric journals showing the lack of benefit for acupuncture for asthma. Having said that, I have patients every now and then who come in and say that acupuncture has been helpful. And I think it’s sort of fascinating. I don’t know anything about acupuncture. But you do hear very impressive stories. So again, I don’t have anything that I can personally point to to say “yes, it works.” And the literature doesn’t seem to support it. But we do hear these interesting anecdotal reports from time to time.
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