Kinesiology and Asthma

I conducted a research assignment on asthma for one of my final units of college. As the results were very positive in reducing the symptoms of asthma I thought I’d share them with you.

To date there is no known cure for asthma, only preventatives and treatments.

‘Asthma is a condition of the airways’ (Asthma Foundation 12/8/2013). Triggers react with the sensitive airways of the lungs of people with asthma and set off their symptoms. This causes the airways to narrow, making it harder for the sufferer to breathe. The main reason the airways narrow is inflammation. Airways block due to extra mucus being present, bronchoconstriction, where the muscles around the airways tighten (Asthma Foundation 12/8/2013)

Asthma Australia states that in 2007 around 10% or 2 million people of Australia have asthma. Asthma frequency in Australia is high compared to that of international standards, there appears to be no known reason for this occurrence. Adults have had little change in the rate of asthma and have mild to very mild episodes. People 75 and over have a higher rate of asthma. Boys have a higher rates of asthma compared to girls in the 0-14 age group, where girls have more asthma in the 15 years and older age group. Most children in Australia have irregular asthma that lasts a short period and only take medication when symptoms appear. Children with more asthma are less than 5% (Asthma Foundation 29/08/2013)

The most common treatment for asthma prevention presently is pharmacological. These include inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) or LABAs (Long-Acting Beta-Agonists) as the first line of therapy for persistent asthma. These are shown to be the most effective anti-inflammatory treatment and a single ingredient product or in combination with a corticosteroid. Effects lasts up to 12 hours. Corticosteroids have known side effects.

SABAs (Short-Acting Beta-Agonists) are classed as rescue medicines to quickly relieve symptoms and are non-corticosteroid based, they usually work within a 3-5 minute time frame but only have lasting effects for 4-6 hours. The application of both LABAs and SABAs is predominately by a metered-dose inhaler (MDIs). (William E Berger 2012 p.56)

The research I conducted included 5 subjects of varying ages, gender and degrees of asthma symptoms. They had a total of 5 treatments. Before the commencement of their first treatment, and 2-4 weeks after the completion of their last session, Their peak flow meter reading was performed to record airway performance. This device measures how well your lungs expel air. A deep breath is taken then expelled as hard as possible to measure the force of air expelled. This is measured in Litres per min (L/min). It can help to keep asthma in check, as it is usually the first indicator of airways narrowing, before symptoms may be felt. The standard asthma control questionnaire by The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners was completed before the first treatment and again 2-4 weeks after the final assessment.

The questions included:

1. On average, during the past week, how often were you woken by your asthma during the night?
2. On average, during the past week, how bad were your asthma symptoms when you woke in the morning?
3. In general, during the past week, how limited were you in your activities because of your asthma?
4. In general, during the past week, how much shortness of breath did Yu experience because of your asthma?
5. In general, during the past week, how much of the time did you wheeze?

So how did Kinesiology fair with asthma symptoms of my subjects? Three had improvements in their peak flow meter readings, one stayed the same and one had a slight decrease in the litres per minute expelled. As for the questionnaire there was also improvement on all questions, (except wheezing, where one subject had a slight increase).  All the symptoms either remained the same or had improvements.
The research appears to show that kinesiology does effect asthma symptoms in a positive aspect in most cases. Two subjects did comment that they didn’t need Ventolin when exercising as they had done before participating in the research. All subjects said that they felt better overall. As the research was only conducted over a relatively limited time span, it could be hypothesised that greater reductions in symptoms would occur over a longer period of treatment.

As kinesiology treats you as a whole, rather than just a physical being, the research included not only treated the asthma symptoms, but where it may have started in the first place. This may include physical issues, allergies, emotions, thoughts, feelings, certain age(s), your neurological, biochemical, nutritional systems and more.