COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is now the third leading cause of death in the United States just next to cardiovascular disease and cancer. It is a progressive disease which means that it gets gradually worse with still no type of cure looming in the near future.
Physicians often recommend the patient to stop smoking and prescribe their patients with portable oxygen bottles to breathe in pharmaceutical oxygen with a mask or pharmaceutical inhaler meds that have dangerous side effects. Controlling this condition is the mode of addressing this malady by the medical establishment. They are not interested in curing it. Lung transplant surgery is the last medical result for COPD sufferers.
COPD develops usually among smokers although inhaling asbestos filaments and/or toxins from chemical pollutants can result in what appears to the medical establishment as COPD and/or permanent lung damage.
Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are conditions that are considered COPD; asthma is not considered one. Asthma often develops among children suffering other auto-immune allergies and is a more manageable condition. Children whose asthma is mostly of a psychosomatic type often outgrow this disease. COPD, on the other hand, develops later in life, often without other auto-immune problems and gets worse with age.
Wheezing and dyspnea (or shortness of breath) are typical symptoms of these lung conditions. Asthmatics often possess drier coughs than COPD patients whose coughing usually expels phlegm. There is crossover of toxic drugs prescribed for the common symptoms, although not all of them are interchangeable.
While COPD patients usually need oxygen bottles to breathe well, asthmatics usually have no need for this. Besides the differences in the rate of mortality, minor structural differences asthma and COPD can exist.
Asthma sufferers often have constricted bronchial tubes during flare ups, but this condition is not a daily chronic problem. Patients with COPD and emphysema have no more elasticity of their lung airway. The airway tubes of patients with COPD and chronic bronchitis are thicker. The symptoms of COPD are long-term and vary in degree from day to day.
Japanese study of acupuncture’s benefits to COPD patients
The Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan did a double-blind placebo trial among 68 subjects suffering from COPD who were divided equally into two groups. One group was given acupuncture and the other group, placebo acupuncture.
Both the real and sham acupuncture therapies were done for 12 weeks once a week. Before and after the 12-week period, all subjects were tested for DOE “dyspnea on exertion” after a six-minute walk. A Borg scale was utilized to compute the perceived degree of exertion on the walk.
The conductors of the trial saw that the group given acupuncture showed better Borg scores, which means that they can tolerate and exert more exercise while showing low DOE after the walk compared to the group given sham acupuncture. The study concluded that acupuncture can be an effective adjunct therapy for dyspnea treatment along with western medical treatment.
A lot of acupuncturists also include Chinese herbs along with their acupuncture treatment to treat COPD disorders.
Asian Health Center
27059 Chardon Rd
Cleveland, OH 44143-1113
Phone: (440) 833-0983
www.clevelandacupunctureclinic.com