Spring is here - Acupuncture found to be effective for Hay fever

Spring has sprung in Melbourne and this can be a difficult time for hay fever sufferers due to level of pollens and allergens in the air. A study by RMIT published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine seems to indicate that there is some hope in reducing symptoms naturally with Acupuncture. The study from 2002 found acupuncture to be a safe and effective alternative treatment to manage hay fever (seasonal allergic rhinitis).




Effect of Acupuncture in the Treatment of
Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis:
A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
Charlie Changli Xue, Robert English, Jerry Jiansheng Zhang, Cliff Da Costa and Chun Guang Li
The Chinese Medicine Unit
Department of Statistics and Operations Research
Drug Research and Development Group
RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia


Abstract: The clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (SAR) was evaluated by employing a two-phase crossover single-blind clinical trial. Thirty subjects were randomly assigned to two groups with 17 and 13 subjects respectively and treated with real or sham acupuncture (three times per week) for four consecutive weeks and then a crossover for treatments for a further four weeks without a washout period. The administration of real acupuncture treatment was guided by a syndrome differentiation according to Chinese Medicine Theory. Subjects were assessed by various criteria before, during and after the treatments. Outcome measures included subjective symptom scores using a five-point scale (FPS), relief medication scores (RMS) and adverse effect records. Twenty six (26) subjects completed the study. There was a significant improvement in FPS (nasal and non-nasal symptoms) between the two types of acupuncture treatments. No significant differences were shown in RMS between the real acupuncture treatment group and the sham acupuncture treatment group. No side effects were observed for both groups. The results indicate that acupuncture is an effective and safe alternative treatment for the management of SAR.

If you are suffering from Hayfever and would like to try acupuncture to help manage it, contact Coburg Chinese Medicine 

Welcome to the Coburg Chinese Medicine Blog

Hello and welcome to the new Coburg Chinese Medicine Blog. This will be the first post of many to come. This blog will contain Chinese dietary recipes, link to published research on Chinese medicine and contain other articles discussing chinese medicine theories.

Today i would like to share a great recipe to help reduce the dry summer throats you can get in this weather