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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Acupuncture in a Rat Model of Asthma
Published on: August 25, 2020
Acupuncture therapy results in immediate bronchodilating effect in asthma patients
Kuo-An Chu1, Yi-Chin Wu, Yao-Min Ting
1Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. kachu@vghks.gov.tw
Background:
According to previous data on asthma in the English literature, there are some results that show encouraging effects of acupuncture improving pulmonary function in asthma patients. We designed a prospective randomized crossover controlled study to determine the efficacy of acupuncture in asthma patients.
Methods:
Eighteen asthma patients with bronchodilator response >20% improvement of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) were initially randomly assigned to receive 1 performance of real acupuncture (RA) or sham acupuncture (SA) in a blinded manner. After a washout period, the patients were crossed over. Spirometry was done and recorded before and after acupuncture.
Results:
Sixteen of 18 patients completed the study. The mean (+/-SD) FEV1 values before and after RA were 1.52 +/- 0.45L and 1.67 +/- 0.40L, respectively (p < 0.001). The mean (+/-SD) FEV1 values before and after SA were 1.49 +/- 0.40L and 1.49 +/- 0.41L, respectively (p = 0.838, not significant). The percentage change in FEV1 values after RA was better than after SA (RA, 11.57 +/- 8.11%; SA, 0.32 +/- 7.76%; p = 0.003), while the bronchodilator response of FEV1 from simple inhalation bronchodilator was better than that for RA (p < 0.001).
Conclusion:
In asthma patients, acupuncture treatment may result in immediate improvement of FEV1, but the degree of improvement is less than that from inhalation bronchodilator.
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