In traditional chinese medicine theory, asthma is clearly differentiated between the actual attacks and the periods between attacks. When the attacks are happening, this is considered to be an acute, excess condition, and the objective is to disperse the excess and stop the attack. Wind, a non-substantial pathogenic factor, lodges in the bronchi and combines with cold or heat pathogenic factors to cause bronchospasms.


Between attacks, the body is considered to be in a deficiency condition. The lungs and kidneys work together to produce wei qi, or defensive chi. Defensive chi can be thought of as analogous to the immune system. It is a yang energy that is manufactured from the food we eat. The kidneys are the root of our ability to produce defensive chi, and the lungs spread defensive chi near the outer surface of our bodies to ward off pathogenic factors like wind, cold, and heat. When the lungs or kidneys (or both) are weak, there is often a deficiency of defensive chi, making us more vulnerable to colds, infections, asthma attacks, etc. It is thought that a person’s defensive chi can be weak due to a hereditary constitutional weakness (up to 75% of children with asthma have a family history of the disorder); but mothers who smoke during pregnancy and childhood immunizations are also cited as contributing factors in asthma.


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