Hay fever-Allergic Rhnitis
Chinese medicine for Allergic Rhnitis (hay fever).
Spring in Melbourne is a time of new blossoms and lengthier day-light hours. Many enjoy spending more time outdoors to soak up the warmer weather. However, this is also a time of increased rainfall and rapid plant growth, resulting in more pollen in the environment. (Deakin University, n.d.)
Melbourne is known as the world’s allergy capital, health experts suggest more than one in five Australians suffer from Allergic Rhinitis, also known as hay fever (Turbet & Butt, 2019). Some of the symptoms include:
sneezing
a runny or stuffy nose
itchy ears, nose and throat
red, itchy or watery eyes
headaches
(Better Health Channel, 2018)
Many hay fever sufferers take over the counter or prescribed medication such as antihistamine, corticosteroid nasal sprays, eye drops or even allergen immunotherapy for symptomatic management (Better Health Channel, 2018). Though, in most cases these treatments often do not provide a ‘cure’ but requires continuous consumption of the drugs. Others may seek alternate therapies for long term management and ways to avoid drug associated side effects.
Efficacy of Chinese Herbal medicine in treatment of Allergic Rhinitis - Clinical evidence summary findings
Three systemic reviews that compiles clinical studies of Allergic Rhinitis, (analysed 103 studies, with 12,402 participants), found Chinese herbs are safe and effective for long term management and improvement of Allergic Rhinitis. Results also revealed, Chinese herbal medicine wields positive and consistent clinical effects with minimal side effects. (Kreiner, 2016) (Luo et al., 2017) (Zheng et al., 2018)
Why is this important to me?
Hay fever may seem like a mild disease, where most people perceive it as an annoyance. Still, it could develop into more serious and potentially life-threatening conditions or attacks. Hay fever is known to have connection with both asthma and thunderstorm asthma attacks (Turbet & Butt, 2019).
Chinese medicine is a preventative medicine. Its capable of correcting not only the current imbalances in the body, but also able to avoid further advancement of those imbalances into something more serious – Provided its accurately diagnosed by an accredited Chinese medicine practitioner. Blindly using herbal remedies that are found to be effective from clinical trials without a proper pattern diagnosis could still provide symptomatic controls. However, this over-looks the root causes, and the disease could progress in other presentations.
Chinese Medicine Patterns
Chinese medicine uses unique systems of diagnosis that are different from Western medicine methods, this gives rise to the increase difficulty when creating studies to analyse its treatments. For example, Allergic Rhinitis is a Western medicine disease name for a set group of symptoms, anyone who fits the description will receive the same treatment regardless of other presenting signs the body may be experiencing. Whilst in Chinese medicine Allergic Rhinitis describes only the symptoms of the head, the actual cause of the problem requires further dissection. Often other systemic symptoms are needed to come up with a ‘pattern diagnosis’ (such as Pǐ/Fèi/Shèn Qì deficiency), this then guides the treatment focus and its long-term outcomes.
Additional note: Pattern diagnosis is a fundamental part of Chinese medicine, yet its presence scarcely appears on controlled trials used to measure the effectiveness treatment. This limits the accuracy of such research, and its clinical significance in the practice of Chinese medicine.
Pollen count Websites
Melbourne Pollen Count & Forecast
References
Better Health Channel. (2018). Hay fever. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/hay-fever
Deakin University. n.d. Why Melbourne is the world’s allergy capital. This. https://this.deakin.edu.au/society/why-melbourne-is-the-worlds-allergy-capital
Kreiner, J. M. (2016). Clinical effects of Chinese herbal medicine for allergic rhinitis: Reviews of classical and modern literature (MMS ID 9921863723101341) [Masters Thesis, RMIT University]
Luo, Q., Zhang, C., Yang, L., Zhang, T., Guo, X., Xue, C., & Lu, C. (2017). Potential effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine Yu ping feng san for adult allergic rhinitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 17(1), 1-20. doi: 10.1186/s12906-017-1988-5
Turbet, H. & Butt, C. (2019). Why you get hay fever (and what you can do about it). The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-you-get-hay-fever-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-20180927-p506e6.html
Zheng, Z. P., Sun, Z.S., Zhou, X. P., & Zhou, Z. Y. (2018). Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in treatment of allergic rhinitis in children: a meta-analysis of 19 randomized controlled trials. Journal of International Medical Research, 46(10), 4006–4018. doi: 10.1177/0300060518786905
