Chinese medicine in bronchial asthma

With Chinese prescriptions more air to life

07.11.2012

Breathing difficulty and shortness of breath, whistling and rattling noises in the air, coughing fits, tightness in the chest - about ten percent of children and about five percent of adults in Germany suffer from bronchial asthma. While school physicians prescribe partially cortisone-containing drugs that merely suppress symptoms, Chinese medicine is getting to the root of the disease. In a natural way and without any side effects, it brings great success to stabilize the derailed immune system and to enable a long-term life without medication.

At the beginning of each treatment according to the standards of Chinese medicine is a comprehensive medical history. Pulse loading, tongue diagnosis and medical history lead the TCM experts to the roots of the disease. For example, asthmatics have often experienced many unhealed colds, paranasal sinus processes and middle ear infections that are not uncommon in childhood. The Chinese speak of cold infiltrated into the body. This internal cold makes asthmatics sensitive to fresh, damp, cold weather conditions. They react with allergic and infectious inflammation, which sink from the nasal cavity into the bronchi. In addition, the overactive and at the same time ineffective immune system leads to cramping of the bronchial musculature with shortness of breath and desperate attempts to expel mucus.

„From an early age, many patients are given strong medications such as antibiotics, nasal sprays, and cortisone, which damage the lung Qi, the flow of energy in the respiratory tract, by obstructing the mucous membrane cleansing processes and promoting the accumulation of internal mucus“, knows Dr. Christian Schmincke, TCM expert and head of the clinic at the Steigerwald. „After a thorough analysis of the patient's history, we are slowly and steadily discontinuing conventional medicine during the course of therapy.“ TCM experts prescribe decoctions of Chinese herbs, which they put together to form an individual recipe, which they regularly check and adapt to the course of therapy. Ingredients such as alum flower help to bring the mucus from the depths upwards and thus to relieve the respiratory distress. Bitter almond, combined with the balloon flower root, helps to reduce the spastic hyperactivity of the bronchial musculature. „The herbal mixtures not only acutely help against symptoms, but at the same time create the conditions for the body to find its way back to healthy functioning through the development of slimy-productive infections“, so Dr. Schmincke.

Effective help, especially for short-term symptom relief, also offers the acupuncture. Thus, certain point combinations, such as the so-called approval point of the lung and lung 7 and stomach 40, have proven successful. The soothing movement meditation qigong and bodywork support the therapy by releasing tensions. In addition, a vegetarian diet with few dairy products relieves the organism. Together, these treatments form the five pillars of TCM.