Dr. Lee's Sinus School: Chronic Rhinitis

Dr. Lee's Sinus School: Chronic Rhinitis

Hello, I guess there must be a lot of people who are suffering from rhinitis.
I will tell you difficulty in treating chronic rhinitis with medication.
In order to cure chronic rhinitis, you need a fundamental method.

The Reasons behind Difficulty in Treating Chronic Rhinitis with Medicines

 

We have looked at rhinitis at different stages. Rhinitis caused by nasal cold can be easily treated with conventional medications, however, the time will come when congestion cannot easily be resolved after recurring episodes. From thereon, seeking help from hospitals and medicine may fail to offer adequate solution. Why is that so? Why rhinitis became an intractable disorder?

 

Let's take a closer look at the aspect has been under a veil of secrecy: why chronic rhinitis is hard to treat with medications.

 

The nasal mucous membrane consists of sponge-like tissues, embedded with mucus secreting glands to keep the membranes moist. This also serves as the acceptor to receive odor molecules, moist controller and air filter when breathing.

 

If the membranes have no secreting function to keep the moisture level constant, the dryness in the nasal mucosa might cause a severe pain.

 

We need to focus on it consists of secreting tissues. This also could mean it can be easily inflamed to swell up. Therefore, infection in the tissues induces much larger inflammation compare to any other tissues. This in turn, increases their secretion, resulting continuous nasal discharge as a broken, leaky faucet. The constricted nasal passages become congested.

 

Drug treatment alone suffice to treat acute rhinitis at its early stage. However, recurring rhinitis diminishes the effectiveness of the treatments, patients do not feel their noses clear. Prolonged inflammation causes the nasal mucosa to lose much of its elasticity, however, there is more important reason.

 

This can be explained by the post-rhinitis swelling which remained inflamed to a certain degree. The swelling is not caused by an infection, but by remaining hypertrophic tissues.

 

If this repeats year after year, cold after cold, the hypertopic tissues accumulates to block the nose, which are hard to relieve with anti-inflammatory drugs. (The inflamed nasal mucous membrane secrets more mucus relative to its engorged state; this currently describes as chronic rhinitis.)

 

The limited efficacy of the drug therapy in treating the mucous membranes leads to volume-reduction treatments to widen the space of the nasal cavity. This would reduce the secretion and therefore, congestion would be resolved. Western medicine, therefore, has to offer no other than surgical options.

 

Alternatively, Oriental medicine provides a non-surgical solution, blood-pricking therapy on the nasal mucous membranes. Using a special bloodletting needle, slightly penetrate into the affected nasal mucosa to draw blood.

 

Gradually, the swelling subsides as the blood oozes out. Repeating the procedure assures the reduction of the volume to the desirable size of the membranes. Rather than waiting for the therapy to be performed as the last resort, when drugs fail to offer help, pricking the nose in advance, such as when contracted a cold, may save people from severe stuffy nose. This is an ideal as killing two birds with one stone, as acupuncture also relieves blood stasis to revitalizes the membrane.