Study of Therapeutic Mechanism of Acupuncture in Treating Bronchial Asthma

It has been considered by modern medicine that bronchial asthma is a chronic airway allergic inflammation (AAI) which is the major factor that induces reversible airway ventilating disturbance and bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) in asthmatic patients, as well as a correlation between the delayed-phase onset of asthma and AAI is more significant than immediate-phase onset of asthma in its pathogenesis. Anti-inflammatory therapy as a fundamental principle of treatment for bronchial asthma has been brought forward during the interval phase so that a large number of anti-AAI drugs to significantly enhance the curative effect such as inhalant corticoid, disodium cromoglycate, and leukotriene receptors antagonist, etc., has been rapidly developed. Additionally, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and integration of TCM and western medicine (WM) therapies, including acupuncture, are gradually taken into account by the medical circle as a characteristic in our country for treatment of bronchial asthma. It is worthy of being pointed out that the curative effect of acupuncture and moxibustion in treating asthma is evident, and that its therapeutic mechanism has to a certain extent, been found along with the recent deep-going acupunctural research.