“The World Health Organization lists asthma as among 40 illnesses they testify can be effectively treated by acupuncture.”

Actually, that’s not quite the case. According to an early panel on the National Council Against Health Fraud, “the World Health Organization has listed more than 40 [conditions] for which [acupuncture] may be indicated.”

Something possibly being indicated is TOTALLY different from stating it “is indicated”, let alone that something is firmly believed to work.

There’s a lot more than that to it, though — for the full truth with citations regarding the “WHO says…” claim and others, please read the extensive report here:
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/acu.html

My own parents tried acupuncture on me when I was young, because of the absurd number of health problems I was born with. While my mother is fairly alt-med to this day, she herself stated that acupuncture wasn’t effective. That says a lot, believe me.

Today, modern medicine is very against *oral* steroids, yes — but the newer preventative steroid *inhalers* have few side effects yet are absolutely amazing. I’m a very severe asthmatic, and even *I* have minimal symptoms when I’m diligent about the inhalers.

I think acupuncture likely has a lot to offer people that are attempting to quit smoking, are in their first bout with depression, or similar. But touting it as a superior alternative to preventative & control treatments for a well-understood lung disease that can descend without warning and kill — that’s beyond wrong. There’s a reason that most of our deaths are preventable; it’s because it’s easy even for me to fall into hopeful optimism and not renew that inhaler or keep a good one handy. :-/