Is Chinese medicine or Western medicine better for treating rheumatoid arthritis?

Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine each have their strengths and weaknesses in treating rheumatoid arthritis. The effect of traditional Chinese medicine in treating rheumatoid arthritis is relatively slow but more thorough. It also has high requirements for doctors who prescribe medicine, and the efficacy is uncertain. Western medicine can produce short-term results in treating rheumatoid arthritis, but it only treats the symptoms and not the root cause, is prone to recurrence, and has certain side effects.

If rheumatoid arthritis is mild, you can first use Chinese medicine such as Tripterygium wilfordii for treatment. The side effects are relatively small, and the treatment effect is good for some people. But it should be noted that Tripterygium wilfordii is not effective for some rheumatoid diseases, so you have to consider using immunosuppressants in Western medicine for treatment. Some types of rheumatoid arthritis need to be treated with glucocorticoids in Western medicine. It depends on the specific classification.

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[Treatment policy]

The treatment of this disease mainly includes patient education, early treatment, combination medication, individualized treatment plan and functional exercise.

[Drug treatment]

The treatment plan should be individualized, and drug treatment mainly includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, slow-acting anti-rheumatic drugs, immunosuppressants, immune and biological preparations, and herbal medicines.

[Surgical treatment]

Surgery is an effective treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis who cannot be controlled by medical treatment and have severe joint dysfunction. Surgical treatment ranges from carpal tunnel syndrome release and tendon repair to synovectomy and joint replacement.

[Other treatments]

For those with obvious joint swelling and pain, rest and joint immobilization should be emphasized, and after the joint swelling and pain are relieved, attention should be paid to starting functional exercises of the joints as early as possible. Auxiliary treatments such as physical therapy and topical medications can quickly relieve joint symptoms.

[Prognosis]

When rheumatic activity stops, the joints have become ankylosing and joint function is severely impaired.

Treatment Misunderstandings:

Avoid falling into misunderstandings. Rheumatoid arthritis is not a result of low immunity, but a disorder of autoimmune function.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune inflammatory disease. Therefore, it is easy for people to form a misunderstanding that their immunity is low. It is not that the immunity is low, but that the immune function is disordered. The immune function is self-disordered and attacks itself. Therefore, in daily life, we should not one-sidedly emphasize increasing our immune resistance. Sometimes, when we treat immune function, we need to balance immunity. We should not excessively and one-sidedly emphasize nutrition to enhance immune resistance.