Observations on Intrinsic Asthma and the Bladder Channel

In an emergency situation, the body has two possible responses: increasing the level of sympathetic mode above baseline or activating the mammalian dive reflex. The physiology of the mammalian dive reflex has long been recognised as consistent with the symptoms and chemical changes of intrinsic asthma. This article documents observations in five patients with intrinsic asthma that suggest that people who inadvertently activate the mammalian dive reflex, causing symptoms of asthma, do so because their bodies cannot adequately activate the sympathetic mode. According to the clinical observations of the author, an emergency-level increase in sympathetic mode requires a very specific set of channel qi alterations involving the Bladder and Kidney channels. In every intrinsic asthma case attended by the author, the patient had an obstruction in the flow of channel qi that prevented the patients from accessing or increasing the degree of sympathetic mode. When the blockages were removed using acupuncture and/or tuina, the ongoing asthma attack and/or the tendency for asthma ceased and did not return. This article is a call for replication.