Experience with treatment in China?

Question

Dear expert team members,
I believe that your experiences could help me to choose the right sources of information.
Have you ever heard something interesting about Chinese medicin methods particularly physiotherapy methods focused on CF patients?
Could you recomend any realated information sources please?
I am interested to check the posibility to support our regular CF treatment by systematic exercising and herbal therapy. Possibly with something else.
Thank you very much
Roman Krapka

Answer

Dear Roman,

Thank you for your question. Although there is some evidence to support the use of complimentary therapies in CF, this evidence is very limited and mostly in therapies such as massage. Physiotherapists regularly use massage therapy in our unit. I do think that some of our patients do independently use alternative treatments and so research into the use of complimentary and alternative therapies in CF is important.

Here at Regional Adult CF Centre in Northern Ireland our physiotherapy management is centred around a programme of airway clearance, nebulised therapy, exercise and musculoskeletal interventions. Airway clearance is tailored to the needs of the individual patient both in terms of the number of treatments per daily and in terms of adjunct used such as Acapella, PEP mask and flutter. Medications such as bronchodilators, nebulised saline, hypertonic saline or DNase may be incorporated to aid airway clearance.

Exercise capacity is regularly assessed on a regular basis with our patients and advice on exercise training is also given. When patients are in hospital depending on their clinical status we encourage exercise which can include: treadmill, exercise bike, weights, stretching or pilates. More recently we have purchased a Nintendo Wii and some of the sports games wuch as Wii sports and Mario Bros Olympics. Patients are encouraged to adhere to a regular exercise programme at home.


In terms of herbal therapy and acupuncture – this is not something that we use routinely at our site. However www.henryspink.org/cystic_fibrosis.htm is a website which details traditional and complimentary therapies and is focusing specifically on CF. It also has links to other websites for more specific information.


Best wishes

Judy
The following references should also help:

• Kemper KJ, McLellan MC, Highfirls ES. Massage Therapy and Acupuncture for children with chronic pulmonary disease. Clinical Pulmonary Medicine. 2004; 11(4):242-250

• Hernandez-Reif M, Field T, Krasnegor J, Martinez E, Schwartzman M, Mavunda K. Children with cystic fibrosis benefit from massage therapy. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. 1999; 24(2):175-181

27.08.2008

The answer is edited by: Fiona Kerr