Be Well News

Do you have chronic asthma issues that have persisted for more than 1 year and currently managed through your General Practitioner (with an asthma action plan), but have been considering acupuncture as an adjunct support to your care?

Dr Hyonna Kang (Korean and Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture) is conducting an Acupuncture research project for Asthma patients at Invitation To Health for her PhD (Science) program at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr Kang is recruiting four patients for her Asthma case study project during January, with a plan to start treatment from February for 12 weeks. If you’re interested, here are more details about the research project:

Research has confirmed that not all asthma is the same. People present with different trigger factors, inflammatory responses, and symptoms. Eight Constitution Medicine (ECM)recognises these differences as deriving from inherent physiological and psychological traits. ECM uses different acupuncture and dietary regimens to treat asthma on this basis.

ECM has seen wide adoption throughout Korea, and its effectiveness has been extensively investigated through clinical research. This project will be the first ECM research in Australia. It will explore the experience of ECM and the feasibility of the patient-centred approach within an Australia context.

The promise of Eight Constitution Medicine is to move from a narrow focus on treating disease, to a broader approach to treating the person as a whole. For example, instead of treating only back pain, ECM treats the cause of the back pain which may lie in kidney and metabolic function. Treatment takes the form of acupuncture and prescribes practical ways of maintaining health that are specific to eight constitutions (or “body types”). Rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach, ECM recognises that advice (e.g. eating meat or seafood) that is beneficial to some may be harmful to others.

The lens of ECM allows a practitioner to give tailored acupuncture treatment and specific lifestyle advice to patients, including dietary recommendations (for example, avoid pork; beef and lamb is fine). This changes the patient’s role from a passive consumer of generic medical treatment, to a proactive participant equipped with the knowledge necessary to take ownership of maintaining their own health and avoiding illness.

The research will involve:

1. Research participant patients with chronic asthma condition which has been a complaint for more than 1 year.
2. Each participant will receive 24 free personalised acupuncture treatments for asthma condition by a qualified health practitioner, 2 times a week over a period of 12 consecutive weeks, at Invitation to Health. At the last session, the patient will receive a personalised regimen, including dietary and lifestyle advice.
3. The initial consultation session and the last treatment session will take 90 minutes, while each follow up session will take 70 minutes.
4. At each treatment session, a participant patient will receive an acupuncture treatment, and will complete forms to assess the experience of treatment in terms of progress of the asthma condition, asthma control, and changes in quality of life. A semi-structured consultation will be audio-recorded during the session to be used by the research practitioner for reflection on the case and the treatment strategy.
5. All participant patients’ data will be de-­identified and the information will not be shared with others as defined in the Confidentiality/Privacy section of the participant informed consent form and the UTS ethics application.

Although this is research, the primary focus of your treatment is to address your health issues.

If you are interested in participating or have any questions about the project, please contact us on 0481 287 346 or Hyonna.Kang@student.uts.edu.au

The project has UTS Human Ethics Research approval (REF NO ETH20-4694). The researcher is a qualified health practitioner (AHPRA:CMBA).