American and Chinese researchers recently found that a combination of three traditional Chinese herbs could be as effective as conventional medicines at relieving asthma, but without such severe side effects seen with steroids like oral prednisone.
The study, a collaboration between Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Waifeng Asthma Hospital in China, was conducted for four weeks on people with moderate to severe persistent asthma. The herbal formula — a combination of ling zhi (ganoderma), ku shen (sophora), and gan cao (glycerrhizae) — had a positive effect on lung function and immunological and inflammatory responses.
