Objective To observe the curative effect of warm needling therapy combined with kidney-supplementing and blood-activating Chinese herbal medicine on patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis and its effects on immunoglobulin IgA, IgG and IgM;To explore the mechanism. Methods Ninety patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis were randomly divided into needle with medicine group, needle group and medicine group, 30 cases in each group. Patients in the needle with medicine group were treated with needle warming therapy combined with kidney-supplementing and blood-activating Chinese herbal medicine, patients in the needle group were treated with needle warming therapy, patients in the medicine group were treated with kidney-supplementing and blood-activating Chinese herbal medicine, 30 days for medicine and every other day for acupuncture. Five time acupuncture was one course of treatment, and patients were treated for 3 courses. Shoulder pain index was evaluated, and the levels of IgA, IgG and IgM was determined before and after 3 courses treatment. The total curative effect of the three groups were compared. Results The total effective rates for needle and medicine group, needle group and medicine group were 93.33% (28/30), 73.33% (22/30), 66.67% (20/30), respectively, with statistical significance between needle and medicine group and the other two groups (P<0.05),without statistical significance between needle group and medicine group (P>0.05). There was statistical significance between the shoulder indexes before and after treatment of the three groups (P<0.05). Before treatment, the levels of IgA, IgG and IgM of all three groups increased significantly compared with the normal reference values (P<0.05). After treatment, the levels of IgA, IgG and IgM were reduced significantly in three groups after treatment (P<0.05), the levels of IgA, IgG and IgM in the needle and medicine group were significantly lower than those in the other two groups (P<0.05). Conclusion The curative effect of needle warming therapy combined with kidney-supplementing and blood-activating Chinese herbal medicine was better than alone needle warming therapy or kidney-supplementing and blood-activating Chinese herbal medicine. This combined therapy could significantly improve the symptoms of patients, reduce the levels of IgA, IgG and IgM, regulate the body immune function, which is probably one of the mechanisms in the treatment of scapulohumeral periarthritis.