According to Chinese medicine, weakness of the righteousness is the internal factor for the onset of the disease. Insufficient endowment, lack of rest and relaxation, and injury caused by emotion and diet can easily lead to the invasion of external evil; feeling the evil of wind, cold, dampness and heat is the external factor for the onset of the disease; the evil paralyzes the meridians and collaterals, blocking qi and blood, and blocking phlegm and blood stasis, which can lead to the onset of the disease. Integrated Chinese medicine treatment is the most effective way to treat RA, including Chinese medicine internal treatment, external treatment, and conditioning care method.
I. Internal treatment method: It includes Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, and the combined application of Chinese and Western medicine
1. Discriminatory treatment: The method of combining disease identification and evidence identification is used to firstly clarify the diagnosis of RA, and carry out discriminatory treatment according to the joint symptoms, systemic symptoms, and the tongue and pulse. The common clinical symptoms are damp-heat paralysis and obstruction, cold-damp paralysis and obstruction, phlegm-stasis paralysis and liver-kidney deficiency. We believe that in the active stage of RA, damp-heat paralysis is the main symptom, which is characterized by swollen and painful joints, localized fever, red tongue with yellow coating, and the treatment is based on clearing heat and dampness, clearing the channels and relieving pain. If the disease is prolonged and the joints are deformed and restricted in movement, it is identified as a mutual obstruction of phlegm and stasis, and treatment is based on activating blood stasis, dispelling phlegm and clearing ligaments. Therefore, the treatment should pay attention to tonifying the liver and kidney, benefiting the qi and nourishing the blood, so that “the positive qi can be stored inside, and the evil cannot be dried up”, to improve the body’s ability to resist disease, the commonly used drugs are astragalus, yellow essence, angelica, white peony, taro meat, dioscorea, chicken blood vine, bone marrow, etc.
2, Chinese medicine + Leigong Vine polysaccharide (referred to as T2): T2 is the active ingredient extracted from the Chinese medicine Leigong Vine, with dual effects of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive, fast onset of clinical effects, but because of its non-eliminable gonadal suppression, clinical application is limited, our experience is that this drug is suitable for application in middle-aged and elderly RA patients over 50 years old, that is, to enhance the efficacy, but also to avoid side effects, the author made good use of Chinese medicine The author has made good use of Chinese medicine preparations with T2 to treat elderly RA patients, and the duration of medication is more than 1 year, which can significantly alleviate RA symptoms without obvious toxic side effects.
The combination of Chinese medicine and western medicine is a combination based on their respective regular medication, which can jointly exert therapeutic effects. The specific method of medication is to choose Chinese herbal soup or Chinese medicine, plus an immunosuppressant, commonly used for MTX. For some patients with severe disease, the efficacy of Chinese medicine alone or Western medicine alone is not satisfactory, the combined application of Chinese and Western medicine can make up for their respective shortcomings, seek to complement each other, increase the efficacy and improve the condition.
Second, the external treatment method: is an effective method to enhance the local treatment of joints, commonly used methods are as follows.
Rheumatoid arthritis treatment, can be based on traditional internal drugs, the use of traditional Chinese medicine external treatment method, highlighting the advantages of external treatment method target joint treatment, which not only can better improve the absorption process of drugs, effectively slow down the toxic side effects of some drugs, while enabling drugs to act more rapidly on the diseased joints, to a large extent to improve the therapeutic effect, in the treatment process has an irreplaceable role and unique advantages. The external treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with a variety of means, including ion import therapy, Chinese medicine fumigation therapy, Chinese medicine external application therapy, acupuncture point patch therapy and so on.
1, ion introduction method: is the use of ion penetration apparatus, the Chinese medicine liquid in the form of ion introduction, the role of local joints, the specific method is to soak the Chinese medicine liquid gauze placed on the affected area, and then placed on the affected area and the opposite side of the limb, respectively, the anion and Yang electrode plate, electrified by the dissociation of the Chinese medicine ion composition will penetrate into the skin, joints and other places with the force of the current, directly “medicine to the disease Each treatment lasts 20 minutes, once a day or every other day, and 20 times is a course of treatment.
Commonly used prescriptions include
For heat symptoms: 15g of Phellodendron, 30g of Lonicera, 30g of Loxodendron, 15g of Herba Vine, 12g of Wailing, 6g each of Boswellia and Myrrh, etc.
Cold formula: 10g of Radix Aconiti, 10g of Radix Sinensis, 30g of Qingfeng Vine, 9g of Osmanthus, 6g each of Boswellia and Myrrh, etc.
2.Chinese medicine fumigation therapy: there are local and whole body, local fumigation is applied to hands, knees, ankles, toes joints, 30 minutes each time, twice a day, according to the identification of the selection of Chinese medicine; whole body bath is the decoction of Chinese medicine, the liquid will be poured into the bath for immersion, applicable to the circumference of joint pain and joint stiffness, once a day, 20-30 minutes each time.
3.Therapeutic external application of Chinese medicine: It is to use traditional Chinese medicine decoction, Chinese medicine bulk paste, etc., evenly applied to the painful and swollen diseased joints or acupuncture points of rheumatoid arthritis patients, which can quickly reduce swelling and pain and relieve the disease. The time of external application is determined according to the strength of the drug and the sensitivity of the patient’s skin, generally 30-60 minutes after external application can be cleaned with water, not too long and cause skin allergies.
4.Acupuncture point application therapy: It refers to the application of drugs on certain acupuncture points or painful joints, and the drugs are absorbed through the skin, and the joint action of the acupuncture points to treat the disease is an external treatment method, which has the effect of relieving the degree of pain attacks, reducing the number of pain attacks and prolonging the interval of pain attacks. The duration of acupuncture point application is usually 2-6 hours. If there is no allergic reaction, the application can be made before going to bed and the applied drug can be taken off in the morning.
Third, conditioning care method.
Chinese medicine believes that cold, humidity, fatigue, trauma and mental stimulation, malnutrition can trigger the disease, so the daily health care, conditioning care is very important. Now about to enter the winter, is also the season prone to RA, winter maintenance need to pay attention to those?
1, pay attention to keep warm
Appropriate increase in clothing, go out with gloves, joint cold pain can be self-heat therapy, less exposure to cold water, but warmth is not necessary to “cover”, if overheating sweating, more desirable to feel the wind and cold evil.
2, scientific tonic
In winter, many patients are concerned about what kind of health care products to eat, how to improve immunity, etc., in fact, RA is not due to low immunity as people sing, but immune disorders, so too much of the so-called immunity-boosting drugs or food is not appropriate, the best choice of food therapy, to flat tonic is appropriate, swollen joints eat barley porridge; cold weather, the joints are afraid of cold, can drink angelica lamb soup, or astragalus, jujube stew. Some patients like to drink medicinal wine, but if the joints are swollen and painful and feverish during acute attacks, it is not suitable.
3.Functional exercise
To avoid joint stiffness and contracture, to prevent muscle atrophy, exercise to do exercises, walking, tai chi, climbing and other less strenuous activities, if the lower limb joints have swelling, reduce exercise, plain exercise time is appropriate at 10:00 a.m., after 3:00 p.m., gradually increase the amount of activity, each exercise to less strenuous, the body is comfortable so far.
Warm tip: If early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment can be achieved, joint damage can be reduced and the disease can be controlled early.