Q: What are the main manifestations of allergic rhinitis?
A: The typical symptoms of allergic rhinitis are paroxysmal sneezing, clear watery nose, nasal itching and nasal congestion. It may be accompanied by eye symptoms, including itchy eyes, tearing, red eyes and burning sensation.
Q: Is allergic rhinitis contagious?
A: An infectious disease is a disease in which the pathogen is carried by an infectious agent and spreads through certain transmission routes. Allergic rhinitis has no infectious agent and is therefore not contagious.
Q: Is allergic rhinitis hereditary? Is it true that if one of the parents has allergic rhinitis, the offspring will definitely develop allergic rhinitis?
A: Allergic rhinitis is hereditary, but it is not a monogenic disease, it is a polygenic disease. In contrast to monogenic diseases, polygenic diseases are not determined by genetic factors alone, but rather by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. It does not mean that if one parent has allergic rhinitis, the offspring will definitely develop allergic rhinitis, but only that the offspring have a higher chance of developing allergic rhinitis compared to the general population.
Q: Since allergic rhinitis is hereditary, why do I have allergic rhinitis now that I am middle-aged and old after never having had an attack before?
A: The development of allergic rhinitis is related to the interaction between genetics and the environment, which means that environmental factors also play an important role in the development of allergic rhinitis. It has been suggested that if exposure to environmental microorganisms is low early in life, the risk of developing allergic rhinitis later in life is increased. The absence of prior allergic rhinitis does not mean that it will not occur later; allergic rhinitis can occur just as well if one is exposed to allergens to which one was not previously exposed.
Q: Can allergic rhinitis become cancerous?
A: Current studies do not suggest that allergic rhinitis has cancerous potential, but it can induce a variety of diseases, such as allergic conjunctivitis, chronic sinusitis, nasal polyps, exudative otitis media, adenoid hypertrophy, and asthma. Therefore, once the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis is made, timely treatment is also needed.
Q: What are the treatments for allergic rhinitis?
A: The treatment principles of allergic rhinitis include environmental control, drug therapy, immunotherapy and health education. Environmental control is mainly allergen avoidance; pharmacotherapy includes some first-line drugs, such as nasal glucocorticoids, oral or nasal second-generation antihistamines, oral leukotriene receptor antagonists, nasal irrigation, etc.; immunotherapy as first-line treatment includes sublingual immunotherapy and subcutaneous immunotherapy.
Q: Can allergic rhinitis be completely cured?
A: Allergic rhinitis is related to genetic and environmental factors, has genetic susceptibility and is not yet curable. The goal of our treatment is to achieve and maintain clinical control.
Q: Does allergic rhinitis need to be treated with antibiotic-like drugs?
A: Allergic rhinitis is a chronic non-infectious inflammatory disease of the nasal mucosa. Non-infectious inflammation, as the name implies, is not caused by pathogenic microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, chlamydia, etc.) and therefore does not require antibiotic treatment.
Q: Glucocorticoids are mentioned in the treatment of allergic rhinitis, will this drug have great side effects on the human body if applied more often?
A: People talk about hormones, but in fact, there is no need to worry too much. Nasal glucocorticosteroids are local medications with low systemic bioavailability and good safety and tolerability. When applied for a long period of time, as long as the patient chooses a nasal glucocorticoid with low systemic bioavailability and uses the recommended dose according to the patient’s age, the effect on the human body is not significant. Some studies have shown that a 1-year course of application of some drugs has no significant effect on the overall growth and development of children.
Q: Why choose immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis? What are the advantages of choosing immunotherapy?
A: Drug treatment is mainly to control the symptoms and relieve the patient’s pain. Immunotherapy is an allopathic treatment for allergic diseases. After treatment, patients can be significantly less symptomatic or even not produce clinical symptoms when they are exposed to allergens again. The advantage of immunotherapy is that it has both immediate and long-term efficacy and has the potential to alter the natural course of the disease, prevent allergic rhinitis from developing into asthma, and reduce the development of new sensitizations.
Q: Why is it important to emphasize standardized treatment for allergic rhinitis?
A: Since allergic rhinitis is a chronic disease with recurrent attacks, it cannot be completely cured, but through standardized comprehensive prevention and treatment, the various symptoms of patients can be well controlled, and the patients’ life treatment can be significantly improved and their level of well-being enhanced.
Q: Why should individualized treatment be emphasized again in allergic rhinitis?
A: Allergic rhinitis is not a single disease, but may also be accompanied by bronchial asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis, upper airway cough syndrome and other diseases; allergic rhinitis exists seasonally and perennially, intermittently and persistently, mildly and moderately-severely; the clinical manifestations of allergic rhinitis vary. All of the above characteristics determine that the treatment of allergic rhinitis should follow the premise of unified standardized treatment, but should also be individualized under the guidance of doctors.