Why do up to 30% of people with rhinitis end up developing asthma? An important reason is improper treatment!

Every year from March to May is the high incidence of allergic rhinitis, patients with rhinitis began to sneeze non-stop, nose can not stop, eyes itchy to open the day...

Dr. Feng Quanling, director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Peking University People's Hospital, reminded that rhinitis must be actively treated, do not feel that your symptoms are mild, blow your nose, suck and suck, beware of a long time, develop bronchial asthma.

Not long ago, Director Feng Quanling received a 36-year-old female patient who came to the hospital for treatment because of cough, chest tightness and breath holding, and the result was a lung function test that showed that it was in line with bronchial asthma, and the patient regretted it. Ask the medical history to know that the patient visited the outpatient clinic a year ago due to allergic rhinitis, but the patient has been allergic rhinitis for three years, for this "old friend", every time after the control of rhinitis symptoms, he stopped the drug on his own, and then used the symptomatic medication on his own because of allergy factors inducing rhinitis.

The original rhinitis, which could have been used only nasal sprays according to the doctor's advice, now develops bronchial asthma, which not only requires the addition of inhalation drugs to the airway, but also has a significant decline in quality of life and a heavy psychological burden.

Allergic rhinitis and asthma are "the same airway, the same disease", and up to 30% of patients with rhinitis will eventually develop asthma

Director Feng Quanling explained that allergic asthma and allergic rhinitis are essentially a type of disease, but one occurs in the nasal mucosa, one occurs in the tracheal mucosa, and the inflammation of the nasal mucosa and bronchial mucosa is very similar in terms of pathogenesis, genetic changes, local pathological changes, abnormal immune function and pathogenesis of the body, so they are homogeneous and homologous diseases, but the locations of occurrence are different.

Allergic asthma and allergic rhinitis are the same disease of the same airway, and the data available so far show that 70% to 80% of patients with asthma have nasal diseases, while up to about 30% of patients with allergic rhinitis will eventually develop asthma.

The structure of the nasal cavity and the airway mucosa is similar, taking the faucet and the pipe as an analogy, the nose is like the outlet of the faucet, and then the pipe down is the trachea, bronchi, allergic rhinitis and allergy-induced asthma in the clinical manifestations and pathological changes are consistent, very easy to occur at the same time.

The fundamental treatment of allergic rhinitis is anti-inflammatory, do not fear hormones!

Director Feng Quanling said that outpatients often encounter patients who are reluctant to inhale hormones to seek traditional Chinese medicine treatment, but in fact, allergic rhinitis is a non-specific inflammatory disease, from the perspective of Western medicine, the first thing is to be anti-inflammatory, this inflammation is not what we often say anti-inflammatory drugs (antibacterial genus) can treat, and now the best use is glucocorticoid nasal inhaler.

Many people are very afraid when they hear hormones, and they think that after using hormones, they will become fat, they will have high blood pressure, they will have diabetes, they will rely on... In fact, these side effects are only occurred after long-term mass use of the whole body, and the inhaled hormone dose is measured in micrograms, which is very different from oral hormones. This low-dose inhaled hormone acts almost only on the nasal mucosa locally, is used correctly, rarely enters the blood circulation of the whole body, has a high safety profile, and everyone does not need to be afraid.

In addition to hormones, there are leukotriene receptor antagonists, which are also one of the anti-inflammatory drugs, and there are also good drugs like anti-allergic ketotil. In addition to anti-inflammatory drugs, it is allergic factors that induce allergic rhinitis, sneezing, runny nose, vascular congestion, nasal congestion and other symptoms, and nasal decongestants of the nose, such as ephedrine, which can well alleviate the symptoms of nasal congestion.

Follow the doctor's instructions, full treatment course, remember not to feel that the disease is relieved after a period of medication, worried that hormone drugs are harmful to the body, stop the drug privately, causing repeated attacks of rhinitis, and even aggravating the disease, resulting in rhinitis becoming more and more difficult to treat. For allergic rhinitis, as long as it can be standardized after healing, it is very good.

Eat cold, beware of cold drinks, and the combination of Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine at the right time can make the treatment effect 1+1>2!

Director Feng Quanling especially reminded that while Western medicine is treated, it is also recommended to combine the method of traditional Chinese medicine. For patients with allergic rhinitis, it should be dialectically treated, such as patients with lung deficiency, and it is easy to get allergic rhinitis when the mucosal barrier function decreases. There is also a kind of cold drink, especially in the southern region, because the climate is relatively hot, many people are willing to drink herbal tea, the first thing to go out and go home is to open the refrigerator to fill a can of iced drinks under the stomach, it is indeed cool to relieve the heat, but in the long run, the damage to the spleen and stomach is very large.

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the spleen and stomach are the foundation of the day after tomorrow, if you eat cold drink for a long time, it will damage the transport function of the spleen, the transport function of the spleen is actually our digestion and absorption process, every day to eat in the things, drink in the water needs to be transported through the spleen, one is transport water wet, one is transported jin liquid, the simple understanding is to turn these eating things into nutrients, transport it to the whole body. That if the spleen's transport function is reduced, what is eaten cannot become the nutrients needed by the human body, qi and blood, it will become phlegm and water, staying in the lungs, and many of the allergic rhinitis patients we see are generally sneezing and flowing water-like snot, which is actually the characteristic performance of cold drinking.

Traditional Chinese medicine treatment is a relatively complex process, internal treatment and external treatment can be, there are oral drugs, there are also external patches, but also with washing, acupuncture.

There is no need to fear hormone therapy, hormone therapy has a good effect, there is no doubt that modern Chinese medicine is also based on a full understanding of western medicine modern medicine to make the understanding and treatment of diseases, the treatment process of the two take their own strengths, give play to their advantages, to achieve 1 + 1>2 effect.

Expert Profile Feng Quanling

Director of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chief Physician, Doctoral Supervisor, Beijing Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Leader of Key Specialties of Beijing Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

End of this article

Please do not reprint without permission

Typography: Golden Beans