Tag: COPD
Chinese Herbal Therapy To Help Overcome Difficulties Caused By COPD
There are around 300 million alveoli in your lungs. These alveoli are small sacks that obtain oxygen from the air that is then infused into the blood. The cell releases carbon dioxide at the same time oxygen is pumped into a cell that then is distributed to the alveoli to be freed out of the body through the process of exhalation.
The alveoli can be damaged by tobacco smoking and when they’re damaged their ability to stretch open becomes limited. The body then will have difficulty to optimally take in oxygen leading to shortness of breath. Apart from the alveoli, smoking can also harm the tiny cells known as cilia. These are the cells that move phlegm up and out of our lungs. Cilia damage can cause toxins, dirt, and germs to accumulate and stagnate in the lungs, causing conditions such as COPD, lung cancer, chest infections, and chronic coughing.
Western Conventional Treatment for COPD
If you have been diagnosed with COPD, the most import thing to do is eliminate the factors that led to the rise of the condition. You need to therefore avoid being exposed to irritants and toxic substances such as fumes and dust,. You also need to stop smoking, and avoid second hand smoke.
Chinese Herbal Treatment for COPD
Having a highly successful history of treating COPD, Chinese herbal medicine can be used to treat shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and lessen phlegm congestion in the lungs. Some Chinese herbs can increase the lung’s ability to take in more oxygen, boost immunity, and treat inflammation.
Cordyceps sinensis
This herb is derived from a mushroom and has several applications that can improve lung function. Cordyceps traditionally comes in the form of a tonic meant to improve sleep quality, endurance, libido, stamina, appetite, and energy. This herb has attracted a lot of interest after the 1993 Beijing Summer games when marathon runners from China were suspected using drugs due to the incredible fast times they were registering in finishing this grueling race. The drug tests all turned out negative. The coach of the runners confessed that they had been using the Cordyceps Sinensis herb in preparation for the marathon.
Some effective Chinese herbs used by TCM practitioners for the treatment of COPD include:
Gan cao – an herb that lessens inflammation, halts cough, and moistens the lungs
Sang bai pi – relieves wheezing and halts cough
Wu wei zi – calms the body and stops cough
Zhe bei mu- lessens the production of phlegm in the body
Ju hong – clears phlegm
Jie geng – lessens phlegm and opens the airways in the lungs
Luo han guo- reduces inflammation and moistens the lungs
Zhi zi – reduces toxicity and strengthens the immune system
Huang qin – lessens phlegm and beefs up the immune system
Tian men dong – moistens the lungs and reduces lung inflammation
Fu ling – reduces the production of phlegm
Mai men dong – reduces inflammation and moistens the lungs
Dang gui – supplies more oxygen to the blood and minimizes swelling
Studies about Acupuncture Treatment in Bellingham for COPD
The results of a placebo-controlled, randomized study on COPD and acupuncture showed the treatment enhanced the range of motion of the rib cage, strengthened the respiratory muscle, as well as improved respiratory function and arterial blood gas, and treated shortness of breath. The ability to exercise was improved after the subjects were given acupuncture. Acupoints UB 13, 20 and 23, GB12, K3, ST36, CV 4 and 12, LI18, and LU 1 and 9 were treated with needles once a week for three months.
Another acupuncture treatment for COPD study done in 2012 discovered that acupuncture helped COPD patients by enhancing their oxygen saturation, reduced shortness of breath, and improved breathing difficulty during exercise. The subjects were given acupuncture ten weeks once each month.
Test Reveals the Effectiveness of Drugs and Acupuncture in Treatment of COPD
COPD or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the least known of the top disease killers in the United States. It is the third leading cause of death, behind cardiovascular disease and cancer. Being a progressive disease, COPD just gets worse over time and conventional western medicine has no cure for it.
The Western modes of treatment for COPD include portable pharmaceutical oxygen bottles for the sufferer to breathe in, a cessation to smoking, and inhaler medications. Since there’s no cure for it, the management of COPD is the theme of the medical establishment. If all else fails, lung transplant is performed.
Occurring mostly among smokers, COPD can also be brought about by frequently inhaling toxic air from asbestos filaments or chemical pollutants that can also lead to permanent lung damage.
COPD is an umbrella term for diseases that include chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Asthma is not considered a form of COPD. Asthma often develops in children suffering from auto-immune allergies and is a much more manageable disease. Certain children with asthma that’s considered to be psychosomatic induced usually outgrow their condition. COPD, however, develops later in life, and it doesn’t need any auto-immune condition for it to come about, and as the sufferer ages, his/her COPD gets worse.
Common to all these lung disorders are the symptoms of wheezing, shortness of breath, and dyspnea. The coughing of COPD sufferers produces phlegm while asthma sufferers tend to have drier coughs. For most of their shared symptoms, there is crossover of toxic prescription drugs (not all of them are interchangeable though).
While COPD sufferers likely require oxygen bottles to breathe, among asthmatics, that contingency is rare. Besides the major differences in their mortality rate, minor differences in structure between asthma and COPD can be noticed.
There is no more lung airway elasticity in people with COPD and emphysema. The respiratory passages of sufferers of COPD and chronic bronchitis are thicker. People with asthma suffer from tightened bronchial tubes during attacks though this situation does not necessarily occur every day. The symptoms of COPD are chronic and sufferers experience them in varying degrees every day.
A Japanese Study Dealing with Acupuncture in Cleveland and COPD
A few years ago, the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine Respiratory Medicine Department in Japan did a placebo trial (double-blind) among 68 COPD sufferers comparing the effectiveness of placebo or sham acupuncture with medication with real acupuncture also with medication.
The trial lasted 12 weeks to which both real and sham acupuncture treatments were randomly administered once a week on the patients. Prior to and after the twelve week period, all subjects were subjected to a six-minute walk to test for DOE or “dyspenia on exertion”. A Borg scale was sued to compute the perceived exertion impact on the walk.
The conductors of the study found that the real acupuncture group showed higher Borg scores, suggesting their ability to exert and withstand more exercise, while manifesting lesser shortness of breath or DOE after the walk compared to sham/placebo group.
It was concluded that combined with conventional medical treatment, real acupuncture can be an effective adjunct for dyspenia.
Conclusion
Although noteworthy, this trial did not involve the use of TCM’s (Traditional Chinese Medicine’s) major tool: herbal remedies. Some practitioners of TCM heavily rely on acupuncture, but almost all combine the use of Chinese herbal medicine as well.
Certain Western supplements have shown the ability to resolve inflammation and clear out hardened tissues. One of these is a protease or proteolytic enzyme known as serrapeptase, derived from the silkworm.
Serrapeptase has the capacity to break down accumulations of mucus, inflamed scar tissues, and proteins. It is an affordable potent proteolytic enzyme which can significantly relieve the symptoms of COPD.
A Small Study Indicates Acupuncture Can Benefit COPD Patients
Acupuncture can offer huge benefits for COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) sufferers, one small trial suggests. This alternative form of therapy can help reduce breathing difficulty after exertion, which is a great issue among several COPD patients. This disease is actually a blanket term that pertains to a set lung diseases that obstruct respiration.
In an editorial of a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, George T. Lewith said that COPD is a condition associated with old age. This disease has really no treatment when in Western conventional medicine. In this study which was conducted in Japan, the researchers gauged the effectiveness of acupuncture on COPD. The study required the participation of 68 adults who all had COPD. They were divided equally into two groups with one group treated with acupuncture for 12 weeks while the other administered with sham (placebo) acupuncture. The placebo treatment used needles that were not meant to actually pierce the skin. All 68 subjects remained on whatever drugs they were previously using.
At the end of the study, the results showed that the members of the group treated with real acupuncture were breathing much easier after walking tests than the members of the sham acupuncture group.
Kyoto University researcher Masao Suzuki, who co-authored the editorial remarked that COPD patients have muscles that are responsible for thoracic movement are significantly fatigued, which may be the underlying reason for the disease.
Mr. Suzuki said that acupuncture helps relax these muscles and thus normalizes function of the muscles resulting in better breathing.
This study may have shown promising results but some experts agree it need to be followed-up by more studies in order to validate once and for all those results. The above study involved just a small sample size and studies involving a large number of participants are needed to confirm the results. Moreover, while the subjects were masked, the practitioners who administered the acupuncture treatment were not, and this might have an influence on the outcomes based on their attitudes,” the authors of the study added.
Mr Lewith stated that COPD is a very hard condition to manage and treat and the outcome of the above study seem like a breakthrough indeed, but one study is not proof enough to change how the disease is managed.
According to the Mayo Clinic, bronchodilators that have quick acting effects are the most common forms of conventional COPD treatment since they result in the prompt alleviation of the symptoms, especially, the symptom of shortness of breath.
There are about 65 million individuals all over the world suffering from moderate to extreme case of COPD based on information from the WHO (World Health Organization). The WHO also revealed that within the next 10 years, the number of COPD cases will rise by more than 30% mainly due to outdoor and indoor air pollution.
Acupuncture Health Center
1303 Astor St #101
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 715-1824
http://www.bellinghamacupuncturecenter.com/
The Effectiveness of Acupuncture as a Complementary Therapy for COPD
COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has turned into the third deadliest disease in the United States behind cardiovascular disease and cancer. Considered a progressive illness, COPD worsens over time with no real cure for this condition.
Western physicians often advise their patients to stop smoking. They either prescribe pharmaceutical medications that carry toxic substances and harmful side effects or oxygen bottles. Conventional Western medicine’s aim is to control the disease rather than cure it. They may recommend lung transplant surgery as the final resort to stop the worsening of the disease.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often strikes people who smoke. Chronic smokers are the highest risk group for this lung condition. But this disease can also develop in people who are regularly subjected to asbestos filaments, chemical pollutants and toxic air. Exposure to these lethal substances can lead to COPD and/or irreparable lung damage.
Asthma is not considered a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are some of the conditions bracketed under this condition. Children with autoimmune problems are the most affected age group for asthma. Children whose asthma is due to psychosomatic causes usually experience a gradual resolution of their problem over time. This is not the case with COPD. This is a disease that is not caused by an autoimmune condition and symptoms exacerbate as the person ages.
Wheezing and breathing difficulty are common and telltale signs of a lung condition. COPD patients have productive cough (their cough expels out phlegm) while asthma patients have dry unproductive coughs. There are medications prescribed for both conditions although they are not often necessarily interchangeable.
Asthmatics rarely have the need to breathe from oxygen bottles except in really life-threatening situations; COPD sufferers, on the other hand, need to use these bottles daily to survive. Besides the obvious disparity in mortality rates, asthma and COPD have relatively few differences in between.
During an asthma attack, the patient experiences a constriction in his/her bronchial tubes. Asthma attacks however, are not necessarily chronic and do not occur on a daily basis. But in COPD patients, their symptoms are experienced on a daily basis due to the thickening and loss of loss of elasticity of their respiratory tract. The symptoms can be felt in varying degrees, and as I said, are experienced every day.
Tarzana Acupuncture and COPD – A Japanese Study
Recently, the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine performed a double-blind placebo test involving 70 patients with COPD all using medications and bracketed into two groups. The modalities that were used included acupuncture that was administered on one group and placebo (sham) acupuncture given to the other group.
Both treatments were given to the patients for 12 weeks. All patients were tested for dyspnea on exertion after they did a 6 minute walk during the pre-testing (before the tests began) and post-testing periods (after the testing period ended). A Borg scale was used to measure the perceived intensity of exertion on the walk.
According to the study’s conductors the group treated with acupuncture exhibited higher Borg scores, which meant they had more energy and capacity to endure and put forth more exercise, while showing less shortness of breath or DOE after the exercise walk as compared to the group treated with placebo acupuncture.
The heads of the study stated that acupuncture can be a really helpful complementary treatment to conventional medicine for the treatment of dyspnea.
Conclusion
If you are really desirous of health, it is then not a good idea to use toxic therapies and ignore safe and effective ones. The above-mentioned study, though admirable, excluded the use of Chinese herbal medicine and other Traditional Chinese Medicine’s (TCM) modalities. Chinese herbal formulas are often used along with acupuncture by TCM practitioners to help treat COPD.
The good news is that more and more Americans are using Western supplements that have been proven effective in resolving inflammation and removing hardened tissues. Some of these supplements contain a proteolytic known as serrapeptase that can dissolve inflammation, blood clots, and even plaque in the arteries.
Serrapeptase has the ability to dissolve mucus, proteins and scar tissues that have been inflamed. It is surprisingly inexpensive and readily available.
There was a story of a man who had a severe case of emphysema COPD. He was wheelchair-bound and breathing with the aid of an oxygen tank. Someone recommended him serrapeptase in lieu of the steroids he was taking. His turnaround was remarkable.