Please read our Asthma Devices Page for more information about monitoring your child's asthma. Conventional asthma therapy can improve asthma control and prevent potentially-dangerous asthma attacks in virtually all children with asthma. While some families may wish to consider alternative treatments, it must be emphasized that these treatments, when used, should be used in addition to conventional therapy, rather than instead of conventional therapy, to avoid the possibility of a a severe asthma attack . A carefully-performed study of chiropractic manipulation showed no benefit when added to conventional medical therapy in children with asthma. Some herbal remedies for asthma contain compounds closely-related to medications commonly used in the treatment of asthma.
Tea contains caffeine, which is closely related to theophylline, a mild bronchodilator.
However, as dosages may not be standardized or may vary, there is no discernible advantage to their use over conventional drug preparations. Many other alternative therapies for asthma are being promoted. In general, these treatments have not been carefully evaluated for their efficacy, and their potential side-effects are often unknown. Conventional allergy tests usually apply extracts of substances which commonly cause allergies to skin which has been pricked with a needle, or, less often, is injected with a needle into the skin. The results of these tests have been shown to be closely related to allergy-causing antibodies against these substances.