The Etiologies, Pathophysiology, and Alternative/Complementary Treatment of Asthma
Antioxidant nutrients, especially vitamins C and E, selenium, and zinc appear to be necessary in asthma treatment. Vitamins B6 and B12 also may be helpful. Omega-3 fatty acids from fish, the flavonoid quercetin, and botanicals Tylophora asthmatica, Boswellia serrata and Petasites hybridus address the inflammatory component. Physical modalities, including yoga, massage, biofeedback, acupuncture, and chiropractic can also be of help.
Use of Multivitamin Supplements in Relation to Allergic Disease in 8-y-old Children
Asthma Fact: — The incidence of asthma in children has nearly quadrupled over the last 30 years — That’s one in ten children in the US (9.4%), and the fastest rate of growth in preschool-age children. The GOOD News: — Children who started taking a multivitamins BEFORE the age 4 had the lowest incidence of asthma and allergies. This study also found that starting multivitamin use later in life, once allergies had already taken hold, appear to have less impact.
Chronic Asthma and Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Objective lung function did not change during the study, but over the course of the study, non-specific bronchial hyperreactivity (n-BR) improved by 36% (P = 0.01) and patient-rated asthma severity decreased by 34% (P = 0.0002) compared with the baseline values.
Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Applications for the Emergency Department Patient
The emergency department (ED) setting offers osteopathic physicians multiple opportunities to provide osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) as either the primary therapy or as an adjunct to the intervention. In doing so, osteopathic physicians can decrease or eliminate the morbidity and symptoms associated with protracted dysfunction. Low back pain, chest pain, torticollis, asthma, and sinusitis are some of the illnesses in which OMT should be implemented as part of the management plan, note the authors. They provide a guide to the general usage of OMT when the aforementioned illnesses present themselves in ED patients, but also emphasize the importance of first ruling out any underlying illnesses that could be manifested by musculoskeletal symptoms.
A Comparison of Active and Simulated Chiropractic Manipulation as Adjunctive Treatment for Childhood Asthma
This article raises an interesting question. Was the “Simulated Chiropractic Manipulation” sham treatment a confounder? How else to explain their findings that “Symptoms of asthma and use of {beta}-agonists decreased and the quality of life increased in both groups, with no significant differences between the groups.” You may want to review the Problems with Placebos/Shams Page for a more in-depth discussion of this topic.
Manual Medicine Diversity: Research Pitfalls and the Emerging Medical Paradigm
Recent studies published in leading medical journals have concluded that chiropractic treatment is not particularly helpful for relieving asthma and migraine symptoms because even though study participants showed notable improvement in symptoms, those subjects who received sham manual medicine treatments also showed improvement. Yet the sham treatment received by control groups in these studies is reminiscent in many ways of traditional osteopathic manipulation. This seems to represent not only a failure to recognize the value of many manual medicine techniques but also an ignorance of the broad spectrum of manual medicine techniques used by various practitioners, from osteopathic physicians to chiropractors to physical therapists.
Chiropractic Management of 47 Asthma Cases
Over a seven-year period, 47 cases of asthma were managed in an outpatient setting. Every case was followed for a minimum of two years to observe effectiveness of care. The study group comprised 28 males and 19 females, ranging from 7 to 42 years of age. Of the 47 cases, 32 patients ranged in age from 7 to 19 years.
Chronic Pediatric Asthma and Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation: A Prospective Clinical Series and Randomized Clinical Pilot Study
After 3 months of combining chiropractic SMT with optimal medical management for pediatric asthma, the children rated their quality of life substantially higher and their asthma severity substantially lower. These improvements were maintained at the 1-year follow-up assessment. There were no important changes in lung function or hyperresponsiveness at any time. The observed improvements are unlikely to be the result of the specific effects of chiropractic SMT, but other aspects of the clinical encounter that should not be readily dismissed. Further research is needed to assess which components of the chiropractic encounter are responsible for important improvements in patient-oriented outcomes so that they may be incorporated into the care of all asthmatic patients.
Self-reported Nonmusculoskeletal Responses to Chiropractic Intervention: A Multination Survey
The findings in the present study were largely similar to those of the previous Swedish study. A minority of patients with self-reported nonmusculoskeletal symptoms report definite improvement after chiropractic care, and very few report definite worsening. Some factors relating to the chiropractor, the treatment, and the patient were found to be weakly associated with the outcome but these factors “explained” only a small fraction, approximately 3%, of the variance.
It is recommended that further research in this area would concentrate on specific disorders that are most likely to produce positive results, such as specifically identified subgroups of digestive problems or tinnitus, and that such research, whether purely experimental or clinical, use stringent research criteria such as random allocation, objective measurements, sham treatment, and observer blindness.
Chiropractic Co-management of Medically Treated Asthma
Asthma is the most common chronic disease in the UK. An inflammatory disorder, it is characterized by increased mucus production and airway hypersensitivity, both of which contribute to a decreased airflow. Common symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing and a feeling of chest tightness. This article presents three cases where patients, being treated by conventional pharmacological means, had chiropractic manipulation administered to the upper thoracic spine twice a week for a period of 6 weeks. Objective measurements were collected using a peak flow meter and subjective data using an asthma specific questionnaire. All three cases resulted in increased subjective and objective parameters and suggest the need for larger studies with appropriate methodology.
Chiropractic Care for Nonmusculoskeletal Conditions: A Systematic Review With Implications For Whole Systems Research
(1) Adverse effects should be routinely reported. For the few studies that did report, adverse effects of spinal manipulation for all ages and conditions were rare, transient, and not severe. (2) Evidence from controlled studies and usual practice supports chiropractic care (the entire clinical encounter) as providing benefit to patients with asthma, cervicogenic vertigo, and infantile colic. Evidence was promising for potential benefit of manual procedures for children with otitis media and elderly patients with pneumonia.
Applied Kinesiology Methods For a 10-year-old Child With Headaches, Neck Pain, Asthma, and Reading Disabilities
After 3 years of neck pain and headaches and 4 years of asthma, reading difficulty, and learning disability, this patient’s symptoms resolved. The patient has remained free of symptoms in these areas of difficulty for 2 years since his initial treatments.
The Chiropractic Care of Patients with Asthma: A Systematic Review of the Literature to Inform Clinical Practice
This systematic review of the literature examined the trials and tribulations of designing a randomized controlled clinical trial with chiropractic SMT and asthma and the important contribution of uncontrolled studies. Chiropractic may offer an alternative care approach for asthmatic patients in an integrative healthcare setting. Further investigations of the chiropractic intervention in the care of patients with asthma should pave the way for higher-level design studies such as randomized controlled clinical trials.
The Use of Spinal Manipulative Therapy For Pediatric Health Conditions: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Six clinical trials investigated the effectiveness of SMT on colic, two each on asthma and enuresis, and one each on hip extension, otitis media, suboptimal breastfeeding, autism, idiopathic scoliosis and jet lag. Studies that monitored both subjective and objective outcome measures of relevance to both patients and parents tended to report the most favorable response to SMT, especially among children with asthma.
Manual Therapy for Childhood Respiratory Disease: A Systematic Review
The present study reviewed the scientific evidence on the benefits of manipulative techniques on children with respiratory diseases. The most common interventions use chiropractic, osteopathy, and massage. However, most studies used distinct administration methods and assessment parameters, and their statistically inconsistent results justify the absolute need of further research in this area.
