Asthma is recurrent episodes of wheezing, expiratory dyspnea, chest tightness, and coughing, exacerbated by nighttime or early morning attacks. Most patients can be relieved on their own or with medication. The prevalence in China is 1-4%.
I. Why does asthma occur?
The cause is still unclear and may be related to genetic factors and environmental factors.
Genetic factors: Allergies are inherited and the incidence of asthma is relatively high in relatives of patients with asthma.
Environmental factors: These are the causes that trigger asthma, such as dust mites, pollen, fungi, animal dander, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, etc.
Infections: such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasites, etc. Some people do not have a family history of asthma but develop asthma after infection.
Food: e.g., fish, shrimp, eggs, milk, etc.
Medications: aspirin.
Chronic inflammation of the airways is the essence of asthma. The inflammation mentioned here is a medical concept. It is a reaction of the airways due to the above causes, edema, exudation, increased secretion, which in turn stimulates the airways causing spasm, resulting in narrowing of the airways and the occurrence of asthma.
Second, the treatment of asthma.
Patients should understand their condition and know whether they are asthma? If they are asthma, to what extent, they should have a good idea of the purpose of the treatment of asthma is to control asthma, reduce recurrence and even no recurrence; long-term use of a minimum amount of drugs to control asthma so that the patient’s activities are not restricted, and can live, work and study as normal people.
1.Get rid of allergens
If possible, try to get away from the environment that causes your asthma to reduce its attacks. However, sometimes it is impossible to avoid it, so you can only control it by medication to reduce the attacks.
2. Drug treatment
So far, no medication has been reported to cure asthma, so understanding your condition and using medication wisely is the most effective way to control asthma at present.
(1) To use or not to use: Some patients often think that drugs have side effects, especially glucocorticoids, which are commonly used in the treatment of asthma, and try not to use them, so much so that some patients endure the pain of asthma and do not use hormone therapy. The result of such insistence is the damage to the lungs as a price. This is because long-term asthma inevitably leads to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and at that stage, treatment becomes difficult. Doctors know better than patients about the side effects of medications, but why use them? Weighing the side effects of the drugs and the damage of the disease to the person, which is more serious, the doctor’s answer is yes, and that is to control asthma with drugs to prevent the occurrence of COPD as well as pulmonary heart disease.
(2) What drugs to use: The drugs available are beta agonists such as salbutamol; aminophylline; anticholinergic drugs such as ipratropium; leukotriene receptor antagonists such as montelukast; and glucocorticoids.
On this point, patients are advised to receive guidance from the nearest specialist to choose the right medication for them.
(3) About Chinese medicine: Chinese medicine does have certain efficacy in treating asthma. According to the specific conditions of patients, dialectical treatment can adjust the immunity of the body in order to reduce the degree of asthma attacks as well as shorten the duration of asthma. However, this treatment varies from person to person, and not one medicine is suitable for everyone, because everyone’s constitution is different.
Therefore, the so-called ancestral recipe for curing asthma does not make sense in terms of TCM theory. In fact, it is not feasible because there is no scientific assessment method to determine whether it is effective, so it is not to be trusted.