Journal of Young Pharmacists logo
Submit
Journal of Young PharmacistsACADEMIC PUBLISHING
Article

Relevance of the use of Alternative Medicine for Bronchial Asthma: A review

1★, 1, 1★ Corresponding author

  1. 1Department of Pharmacology, Himalayan Pharmacy Institute, Sikkim -737136, INDIA.

CORRESPONDENCE

Sasi Kala M

Department of Pharmacology, Himalayan Pharmacy Institute, Sikkim -737136, INDIA.

sasisasikala2007@rediffmail.com

Volume 1, Issue 2 · pp. 184-189 · 2009 · DOI: 10.4103/0975-1483.55754

ABSTRACT

Alternative systems of medicine include Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, homeopathic, and naturopathic medicine. Chinese medicine emphasizes the balance of qi (“chee”) or vital energy. Within this system, illness is deÞ ned as a disturbance in the balance of vital energy. Ayurveda is a system of healing which evolved from teachings in ancient India. Our review mainly focuses on the importance of the severity and control of asthma in the evaluation of patients and their response to treatment. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, and the National / International abstracts to identify relevant articles. We limited evidence to alternative medicine for asthma, but we also reviewed observational evidence for safety. Outcomes of interest were overall mortality, exacerbations, quality of life, functional capacity, and primary health care. Lifestyle modiÞ cations that effectively lower asthma are: i) increased physical activity, ii) reduction of the impact of environmental factors on asthma such as smoking, air pollution, hazards in schools, day care, the work place, and home, as well as other environmental triggers. Our review suggests that alternative systems of medicine reduce adverse effects and the need for high-impact, high-cost intervention. It is the best way for self-healing and health promotion (salutogenesis rather than pathogenesis) that makes alternative medicine approaches to chronic disease especially attractive.

KEYWORDS

Open in new tab

REFERENCES

As published

Showing references and in-text citations exactly as published.

    Cite this article

    SELECT FORMAT

    M, S. K., S, V. K., & K, G. (2009). Relevance of the use of Alternative Medicine for Bronchial Asthma: A review. Journal of Young Pharmacists, 1(2), 184-189. https://doi.org/10.4103/0975-1483.55754

    Copyright and licence

    © 2009 Author(s)

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0