Center for Chinese Medicine for Allergy and Asthma, Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Pediatric Department, Division of Allergy and Immunology, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA.
Chin J Integr Med. 2011 Jul;17(7):483-91. doi: 10.1007/s11655-011-0780-5. Epub 2011 Jul 3.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of airways that affects approximately 300 million adults and children worldwide. Most therapy currently uses bronchodilators and corticosteroids. Systemic side effects from chronic use of these drugs are concern. Chinese medicine (CM) has a long history of human use in China and other Asian countries and well received by the patients. But as one component of Western integrative medicine (WIM), it is required that CM use is supported by scientific evidence. On the other hand, there are also suggestions that Western standardized medicine should consider personalized practice. In recent years there have been an increasing studies to narrow the gap between CM, the personalized medicine and Western medicine, evidence based medicine. This communication reviews several CM studies published in the English language in details by reviewing the effects and mechanisms of actions on asthma from clinic and experimental studies.Chinese herbal medicines exhibit broad actions on multiple asthma pathologic mechanisms. These mechanisms may involve antiinflammatory and immunomodulatory effects, inhibiting airway remodeling and normalization of hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal (HPA)-axis disturbances. However, the mechanisms of actions of Chinese herbal medicines for asthma are not fully understood. More controlled clinical studies are warranted and some anti-asthma CM may be proved to be effective when used as monotherapy or complementary asthma therapies.
哮喘是一种慢性气道炎症性疾病，影响着全球约 3 亿成年人和儿童。目前大多数治疗方法都使用支气管扩张剂和皮质类固醇。这些药物长期使用的全身副作用令人担忧。中医药在中国和其他亚洲国家有着悠久的人类应用历史，深受患者欢迎。但作为西方综合医学（WIM）的一个组成部分，要求中医药的使用有科学证据支持。另一方面，也有人建议，西方标准化医学应该考虑个性化实践。近年来，人们越来越关注中医药、个体化医学和循证医学之间的差距，以缩小差距。本通讯通过详细回顾临床和实验研究中哮喘的作用和作用机制，详细回顾了几篇已发表的英文中医药研究。中草药对多种哮喘病理机制具有广泛的作用。这些机制可能涉及抗炎和免疫调节作用，抑制气道重塑和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴紊乱的正常化。然而，中草药治疗哮喘的作用机制尚不完全清楚。需要更多的对照临床试验，一些抗哮喘的中药可能被证明在作为单一疗法或补充哮喘治疗时是有效的。
