Curative effect of heat-sensitive moxibustion on chronic persistent asthma: a multicentre randomized controlled trial

Heat-sensitive moxibustion involves using a smouldering moxa stick to search for the most heat sensitive points along the Bladder channels of the upper back (where patients feel a sensation of the heat permeating deeply or spreading horizontally), and then treating these points with moxa until the heat sensitivity decreases. In this trial 288 patients with chronic asthma across 12 hospitals were randomly divided into a moxibustion group, and a usual care group (who received the asthma drug Seretide twice daily). The moxibustion group received treatment daily for the first eight days, then approximately every second day, over three months. The authors found that the moxibustion group experienced significantly greater improvements in lung function and asthma control after three months and at follow-up (three and six months after the treatment period). In addition, the moxibustion group experienced fewer asthma attacks during the nine months of the trial. [Oct 2013]