Chinese medicine treatment of emphysema

There are many causes of emphysema, which is generally believed to be related to smoking, infection and air pollution. We can effectively prevent emphysema. We must pay attention to keeping warm and avoid catching cold, try to avoid the invasion of colds and do a good job of personal hygiene, quit smoking and avoid the stimulation of some smoke and dust. When we suffer from emphysema, we can adopt some traditional Chinese medicine treatments.

Although there are many ways to treat emphysema, we must choose the method that suits us according to our actual situation. We can use drugs and antibiotics to treat emphysema, but it is best to use traditional Chinese medicine.

Emphysema not only brings physical pain and mental stress to patients, but also brings a heavy economic burden to patients' families and society. So what is the TCM treatment for emphysema?

What is Emphysema

Emphysema refers to a pathological state in which the airway elasticity of the distal end of the terminal bronchioles (respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts, alveolar sacs and alveoli) is reduced, over-expanded, inflated and the lung volume increases, or is accompanied by airway wall destruction. According to the cause of the disease, emphysema has the following types: senile emphysema, compensatory emphysema, interstitial emphysema, focal emphysema, paraseptal emphysema, and obstructive emphysema.

What are the symptoms of emphysema?

The severity of clinical symptoms depends on the degree of emphysema. In the early stage, there may be no symptoms or the patient may only feel shortness of breath during work or exercise, and gradually become unable to perform the original work. As emphysema progresses, breathing becomes more difficult, until you feel short of breath with minimal activity or even complete rest. In addition, you may feel fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, and upper abdominal distension. The main cause of emphysema is chronic bronchitis, so in addition to shortness of breath, there are also symptoms such as coughing and sputum. In the early stage, only the expiratory phase is prolonged or there is no abnormality. In typical emphysema, the anteroposterior diameter of the thorax increases, forming a barrel-shaped chest, with weakened respiratory movements, weakened voice tremor, hyperresonance on percussion, narrowed cardiac dullness boundaries, downward shift of the liver dullness boundaries, decreased breath sounds, and sometimes dry and wet rales can be heard. The heart rate increases, the heart sounds are low and distant, and the pulmonary artery second heart sound is hyperactive.

Disease classification of emphysema

As mentioned above, there are two patterns of emphysema: etiology-emphysema-chronic bronchitis, etiology-chronic bronchitis-emphysema. Obstructive pulmonary disease

Emphysema or COPD can be divided into two types based on clinical manifestations, namely emphysematous type, also known as red asthma type (PP type) and bronchitis type, also known as purple swelling type (BB type); some patients do not meet the typical manifestations of the above two types, also known as the "mixed type" (X type).

1. BB type: The patient has more severe bronchitis and milder emphysema. He has a prominent history of cough and sputum production and is usually obese. He often has cyanosis, distended neck veins and lower limb edema. Dry and wet rales are often heard at the lung bases. Pulmonary ventilation function is significantly impaired, diffusion function is normal, hypoxemia and hypercapnia are often present, and the hematocrit is increased. This type of patients often suffer from chronic cor pulmonale, which can easily develop into respiratory failure or heart failure and have a poor prognosis. This type of disease is rarely seen in elderly patients.

2. PP type: The patient has more severe emphysema and less severe chronic bronchitis. This condition is more common in the elderly, who are thin, have obvious shortness of breath, and generally no cyanosis. They often take a special posture—shoulders raised, arms supporting the bed (chair), and exhaling like a whistle. The chest X-ray shows significantly increased lung translucency, reduced lung texture, significantly increased residual gas rate, less ventilation damage, normal hematocrit, and blood gas tests are mostly normal or slightly damaged.

What is the seriousness of emphysema? Only by making people aware of emphysema can patients be more vigilant and actively treat the disease.

Patients with long-term lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis are prone to developing emphysema. If you have emphysema and are a heavy smoker, you must quit smoking because smoking will accelerate the deterioration of emphysema. As emphysema progresses, breathing becomes more difficult, until you feel short of breath with minimal activity or even complete rest. Severely ill patients experience dyspnea, cyanosis of the lips and extremities, worsening cough, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, etc. Moreover, as the weather becomes colder and respiratory infections occur, the above symptoms worsen, which in turn aggravates lung damage, often forming a vicious cycle and ultimately leading to respiratory failure, heart failure, and even death.

Now that we know the severity of emphysema, what is the TCM treatment for emphysema?

Through modern medical research, traditional Chinese medicine has developed a good method for treating emphysema: magnetic medicine superimposed on immunotherapy.

This therapy is based on the acupoint theory of traditional Chinese medicine and uses a variety of techniques such as cupping, drug fumigation, acupuncture, and external plasters to comprehensively treat and regulate diseases. Through this special treatment method, patients can achieve the goal of "preventing disease before it occurs" while treating the disease.

Traditional Chinese medicine treatment of emphysema can effectively avoid the side effects of traditional treatment methods and enhance people's resistance. Experts also emphasized that patients should pay attention to some care and life issues during treatment, such as living environment and diet. Only when these measures are done well can the effectiveness of treatment be guaranteed.

Above, we introduced what emphysema is and the causes of emphysema. We also introduced how to effectively prevent emphysema. Once emphysema occurs, we can use medication and some physical treatment methods, and patients can perform breathing exercises. The above article introduces in detail the Chinese medicine treatment methods for emphysema.