GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – While the North American research and medical community steadfastly refuses to recognize the value of alternative medicine, it’s a whole other ball game in other countries.

Researchers from Griffith University (GU) are currently looking at the benefits of acupuncture as an alternative treatment for allergies. Allergic rhinitis – commonly called hay fever – will be the focus. The timing is perfect as Australia is moving into their spring and summer pollen season.

The eight week project will be led by research academics from the university.

Professor Alan Cripps is the pro vice-chancellor for health at GU. He acknowledges that many Australians are already using complementary and alternative therapies to treat their own symptoms. This research is designed to look at one of these alternative therapies – acupuncture – and see what the true effectiveness is.

Cripps says, “I think there’s a gathering body of evidence that acupuncture is recognised [sic] as a treatment for a number of diseases.”

GU researchers are looking at acupuncture and allergy because other research studies point at the effectiveness of using this therapy with hay fever. Hay fever is characterized by those telltale itchy, puffy, watery eyes and that red, stuffy nose. The research will investigate those findings further.

On the other hand, there has not been any scientific studies that have shown a positive effect between acupuncture and other allergy-related disease processes. For instance, asthma has not been shown to be helped by acupuncture treatments. However, allergic patients often suffer from both allergies and asthma.

Asthma is a chronic breathing problem, characterized by some symptoms that are similar to environmental allergy reactions, including coughing, wheezing, sneezing, runny or stuffy nose and dark circles under the eyes. Asthma’s key challenge to the patient is the narrowing of the breathing passages and the increased production of mucus. It’s the increased production of mucus that creates the shared symptoms with allergic processes.

Source: ABC New Australia and Be Allergy Wise