Persistence and patience are the keys to the effectiveness of Chinese medicine in the treatment of rheumatic diseases As we all know, most rheumatic immune diseases are chronic, complex and have a long course of treatment. Unlike colds and acute intestinal infections, which are effective in a few days, the treatment goes well one day at a time. The treatment of rheumatic diseases is being studied by medical doctors all over the world, and the treatment effect has been significantly progressed than 10 years ago, but it is still not satisfactory. Chinese medicine is the treasure of the traditional culture of the motherland, and is the crystallization of the wisdom of working people and medical doctors for thousands of years. Chinese medicine has accumulated a wealth of experience in the treatment of rheumatic diseases, and is still an important treatment tool. I have treated many very difficult rheumatic diseases in the clinic, such as rheumatoid, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, dry syndrome, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, recurrent mouth ulcers, as well as adults and children with recurrent colds and low immunity, and I deeply feel that taking Chinese medicine for rheumatic diseases does require persistence and patience. Not long ago, there was a master Zhang from Ningyang, aged nearly 60, suffering from scleroderma for 7 years. The skin on the back of the neck was still thickened and hard. The patient knew that long-term use of hormones would cause a series of complications such as femoral head necrosis, and in order to solve this problem, he made many inquiries and found me. After detailed medical history and symptoms, comprehensive physical examination and laboratory tests, and careful examination of the tongue and pulse, the Chinese doctor identified the typical phlegm and dampness within the body, and gave the representative formula for drying dampness and resolving phlegm, Chen Ping Tang, plus or minus, which did not change at first. The patient was given warm yang medicine: cooked sapodilla, white mustard seed, raw ephedra, etc., but the symptoms were still not relieved, and by this time the patient had already taken 18 payments of medicine, and the prescription was adjusted every 3-4 days. As a doctor who has been practicing for nearly 30 years, I knew that I had encountered a patient with a very complicated condition, and I admired Master Zhang’s perseverance and patience in taking the medicine. I carefully reviewed the ideas of the 18 medicines and found that they were all analyzed and judged by the patient’s physical signs and tongue and pulse, which are generally able to see the essence of the disease, but the condition is complex, and sometimes the surface phenomenon is not consistent with the internal disease mechanism. When Master Zhang had taken 46 pills, he felt that he could go up three flights of stairs without shortness of breath, without rest in between, his chest pain had basically disappeared, the skin on the back of his neck had softened, and the “palpable sound” in his left lung due to interstitial lung fibrosis had disappeared. I then reduced the hormone dosage of Master Zhang and decided to adjust the prescription once every month. Looking at Master Zhang’s treatment process, there are two insights: First, the pathological mechanism of rheumatic diseases is complex, and sometimes the surface symptoms do not reflect the inner essence. Sometimes it is necessary to gradually solve the superficial pathological mechanism in order to expose the deeper pathological mechanism, and the treatment is a process from superficial to deep. Second, rheumatism treatment with drugs requires a certain amount of time to accumulate efficacy, which requires patience and persistence. Patients who come to our clinic who persist in the process have gotten better. Anyone who eats 3-5 payments of drugs is missing, and they look for “magic formula” “secret formula” everywhere, the disease is often recurrent and always unstable.