According to a new scientific review, from Chinese authors, massage therapy can help asthma and significantly improve pulmonary function in children. The authors of the study evaluated the efficacy of massage, a traditional treatment method of traditional Chinese medicine on children with asthma. Fourteen studies with 1299 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with the control group, a better efficacy was found in treatment group, which focused on massage therapy. Compared with control group, there was remarkable increase on FEV1 as well as PEF in the treatment group. The results found all studies have shown that massage therapy has a significantly positive effect on children with asthma, improves the pulmonary function parameters of large airways, reduces the plasma concentrations of PAF and prostaglandin, and increases the levels of PAF-AH and DP1; therefore, it greatly improves pulmonary function. However, the limited research designs of the included studies lead to high risk of bias. More randomized controlled trials with better methodological quality are needed to further confirm the effectiveness of massage.
