[Foot zone therapy and bronchial asthma--a controlled clinical trial]

Thirty patients with proved bronchial asthma receiving treatment with inhaled steroid in dosages of less than 1,000 micrograms daily were subdivided at random into two groups of 15 patients. One group received foot zone therapy and the other merely uniform clinical care but without "placebo foot zone therapy". The "active" group received a total of ten foot zone therapy sessions of one hour at intervals of one week. The asthmatic symptoms, consumption of medicine and the objective pulmonary function parameters were followed-up during the subsequent six months. Decrease in consumption of beta-2-agonists and increase in peak-flow levels were observed in the group which had received foot zone therapy, but the same changes were observed in the control group. The authors do not find that this investigation demonstrates that foot zone therapy is of effect on the disease bronchial asthma. They conclude, however, that the favourable effect in both of the groups are due to increased care and control which occurred in both patient groups.