2022 The American Journal of Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture is a safe and effective treatment for Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis, significantly improving symptoms without needing relief medication or causing side effects.

The study was a two-phase, single-blind, crossover clinical trial where randomly assigned subjects, split into two groups, were treated with either real or sham acupuncture. All participants received treatment thrice a week for four weeks straight before being flipped onto the other form of treatment for another four uninterrupted weeks without a washout period. The real acupuncture treatment plan was guided by Chinese Medicine Theory. The subjects' responses were measured at various stages - before, during, and after the trials.

In the study, significant improvement was marked in the subjective symptom scores, both nasal and non-nasal, between the group that received the genuine acupuncture and the sham treatment. It was noteworthy, however, that no marked differences were found in the relief medication scores between the two groups. There were also no recorded side effects from either the real or sham acupuncture groups. This suggests that acupuncture proves to be a safe and effective alternative for managing Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis.

Effect of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Xue CC, English R, Zhang JJ, Da Costa C, Li CG

2021 Medicine

The use of Yu Ping Feng San for pediatric allergic rhinitis appears relatively safe compared to Western medical therapy yet its routine use remains unsupported.

The study undertakes a systematic search across multiple databases, including PubMed, the Excerpta Medical Database, Cochrane library and more, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning the use of YPFS for pediatric allergic rhinitis. Extracted results were subjected to stringent bias-risk analysis based on the Cochrane Handbook. A meta-analysis was then implemented using RevMan 5.3 software, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology was applied to check the quality of evidence for every outcome.

The study pooled 10 RCTs covering 1,069 participants aged between 3-15 years for initial inclusion. After certain exclusions, it was determined from the remaining eight RCTs that the overall efficacy did not show any notable advantage for the test group. In addition, inspections into variation of serum immunoglobulin levels showed no statistical significance. However, the safety of YPFS displayed better results, demonstrating a relatively safer approach with lower recurrence rates compared to Western medical therapy.

Yu ping feng san for pediatric allergic rhinitis Liao Y, Zhong J, Liu S, Dai M, Liu Y, Li X, Yang Y, Zhang D, Lai D, Lu T, Zhang Q, Zhao Y

2018 Acupuncture in Medicine

Acupuncture appeared to significantly reduce the number of days of antihistamine use while improving rhinitis-specific quality of life and seasonal allergic rhinitis symptoms

The data from 414 patients were analysed. The acupuncture group used antihistamines significantly less often compared with the other groups (acupuncture vs sham acupuncture: mean difference −4.49 days, p=0.01; acupuncture vs RM: mean difference −9.15 days, p<0.001). Approximately 38% of the acupuncture group did not use any antihistamine in contrast to only 16% in the RM group. The pre-post comparison suggested that the acupuncture patients did not need to increase the days of antihistamine use to alleviate their symptoms, unlike the other groups.

Acupuncture appeared to significantly reduce the number of days of antihistamine use while improving RQoL and SAR symptoms; it can therefore be considered a valuable, additional treatment option for patients with SAR.

Impact of acupuncture on antihistamine use in patients suffering seasonal allergic rhinitis: secondary analysis of results from a randomised controlled trial Adam D, Grabenhenrich L, Ortiz M, Binting S, Reinhold T, Brinkhaus B

2018 Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research

Chinese herbal medicine tends to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from allergic rhinitis.

The researchers examined randomized clinical trials (RCTs) to understand the effect of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) on allergic rhinitis (AR). They conducted a comprehensive search of PubMed, Medline, and Springer databases till March 2017, specifically looking for trials that compared CHM's effectiveness to a placebo in treating AR. They evaluated total nasal symptoms and quality of life, also performing sensitivity and subgroup analyses to further explore the source of heterogeneity in the trial results.

The study included eleven RCTs in the meta-analysis, which revealed significant heterogeneity among them. This means that the data from these individual studies varied a lot, prompting the researchers to use a random effects model to consolidate the data. While CHM did not make a notable difference in alleviating symptoms like an itchy nose, sneezing, or total nasal symptoms, it did result in a noticeable improvement in the overall quality of life of the AR patients.

Chinese Herbal Medicine to Treat Allergic Rhinitis: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis Zhang X, Lan F, Zhang Y, Zhang L

2017 BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies

Yu Ping Feng San, a Chinese herbal medicine, combined with pharmacotherapy could be effective for treating allergic rhinitis in adults.

The paper evaluates Chinese herbal medicine, YPFS, for treating allergic rhinitis in adults by conducting a meta-analysis and subgroup meta-analyses of several randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Seven databases were searched from their inceptions to September 2017 where RCTs evaluating YPFS for adult allergic rhinitis were included. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality of these studies and meta-analysis and subgroup meta-analyses were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of YPFS.

Based on the results, YPFS when used in combination with pharmacotherapy seemed to be more effective than using pharmacotherapy alone for treating allergic rhinitis. The paper highlighted an alleviation of four individual nasal symptom scores post YPFS combination treatment; these being itchy nose, sneezing, blocked nose, and runny nose. Furthermore, it was found that the YPFS combination treatment was more beneficial when it was used for more than three weeks. The paper also mentions that YPFS was safe and well-tolerated for treating adult allergic rhinitis. However, it did not seem to be superior to the second-generation antihistamine.

Potential effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine Yu ping feng san for adult allergic rhinitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials Luo Q, Zhang CS, Yang L, Zhang AL, Guo X, Xue CC, Lu C

2015 Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

Four weeks of acupuncture treatment is a safe and effective option for clinical management of seasonal allergic rhinitis in the Melbourne area for patients' symptom relief and quality of life improvement.

A total of 175 participants were included in this trial. RA was significantly better than SA for decreasing SAR symptom severity (sneezing, mean difference −0.28, 95% confidence interval −0.51 to −0.05; itchiness of ears and palate, mean difference −0.40, 95% confidence interval −0.69 to −0.11) at the end of treatment and improving participants' QoL at the end of the treatment and follow-up phases. Furthermore, the acupuncture treatment was safe and well tolerated.

Acupuncture for seasonal allergic rhinitis: a randomized controlled trial Xue CC, Zhang AL, Zhang CS, DaCosta C, Story DF, Thien FC

2015 Current Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery

There are high-quality randomized controlled trials that demonstrate efficacy and effectiveness for acupuncture in the treatment of both seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis.

Our review of the medical literature from January 2013 through December 2014 revealed that there is research demonstrating efficacy and effectiveness for acupuncture in the treatment of allergic rhinitis, as well as improvement of quality of life and quality-adjusted life-years.

Acupuncture and allergic rhinitis Malcolm B. Tawa, William D. Reddyb, Folashade S. Omolec, and Michael D. Seidmand

2015 Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Clinicians may offer acupuncture, or refer to a clinician who can offer acupuncture, for patients with allergic rhinitis who are interested in nonpharmacologic therapy.

The primary purpose of this guideline is to address quality improvement opportunities for all clinicians, in any setting, who are likely to manage patients with allergic rhinitis, as well as to optimize patient care, promote effective diagnosis and therapy, and reduce harmful or unnecessary variations in care. The guideline is intended to be applicable for both pediatric and adult patients with allergic rhinitis. Children under the age of 2 years were excluded in this clinical practice guideline because rhinitis in this population may be different than in older patients and is not informed by the same evidence base.

Clinical Practice Guideline: Allergic Rhinitis Seidman MD et al.

2012 Allergy

Acupuncture was found to be a more effective and safe treatment for allergic rhinitis than sham acupuncture or no treatment.

Methodology: The study was a multicenter, parallel-controlled experiment. Three groups of randomized participants either received active acupuncture, sham acupuncture (minimal acupuncture at nonacupuncture points), or were placed on a waitlist (no acupuncture treatment). The treatments were given three times a week over a four-week period.

Discussion of Results: The active acupuncture group showed a marked reduction in allergic rhinitis symptoms compared to the other two groups. Despite this, both acupuncture types still showed significant improvements in symptoms when compared to their initial condition, confirming the efficacy of acupuncture in treating allergic rhinitis.

A multicenter, randomized, controlled trial testing the effects of acupuncture on allergic rhinitis Choi SM, Park JE, Li SS, Jung H, Zi M, Kim TH, Jung S, Kim A, Shin M, Sul JU, Hong Z, Jiping Z, Lee S, Liyun H, Kang K, Baoyan L