The Wind Qiu Theory

Purpose: Allergic rhinitis (AR) represents global health problems for all age groups. Patients, clinicians, and other health care professionals worldwide are faced with the relative merits and downsides of the various treatment options. Clinical practice guidelines issued by World Health Organization (WHO) for AR management developed over the past15years have improved the care of patients with AR. But Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has brought scholars to study the use of Chinese medicine in preventing and treating allergic rhinitis. Many theories and means of treatment have been discovered and applied to the clinical use. Dr. Chao Enxiang is an esteemed TCM doctor, in his more than50years practice of TCM; he developed his own theory system about respiratory diseases. This paper summarizes his experience in the treatment of allergic rhinitis, heritages and enriches his theoretical system in respiratory disease treatment.Methods:In this paper, we mainly have three methods of analyzing: Literature mining, Clinical data analysis, and Discussion with Dr. Chao himself. In past literatures, we found many useful articles about AR and its recent development, also Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) indicates its relations with asthma. Also many ones about Dr. Chao’s experience in treating other respiratory disease. Analysis of the clinical data, we withdrew50cases of patients with allergic rhinitis’s data from the "Workstation of the Notable Doctor Chao Enxiang"(WNDCE), and discovered the frequency of use of each Chinese medicine. In the discussing with Dr. Chao, the privileged professor talked about his thoughts without any hold back. He gave us a detailed description of this disease, and his understanding as well as experience in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. By these three methods, I have summarized the unique ideas of Professor Chao Enxiang s diagnosis standards, law of treatments, and medicine preferences about AR.Results:Alongside with his succession of predecessors, Professor Chao Enxiang combined his knowledge of modern medicine tor allergic rhinitis, then come up with a system of theory for AR. Based on his clinical practice experience and observation, he observed the symptoms, the etiology and pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis, and concluded the main pathogenesis which is "Feng Xie Fan Fei, Fci Qi Shi Xuan", moreover came up with the theory system of "treating AR by defeating Devil Feng". Also he summarized patients with allergic rhinitis symptoms into two disease common types--cold and heat type. But the difference in symptoms between the two types is not very obvious; it is still primary to treat the devil wind. Dr. Chao Enxiang s theory system of treating respiratory diseases includes the conclusion to treat the devil wind with pungent and balanced formulas", and the principle of treatment of AR is "dispelling wind, dispersing lung qi, alleviating nasal obstruction and relieving sore throat".The main formula of treating AR is composed by professor Chao himself, named "the formula to dispel wind and alleviate nasal obstruction", it contains these following Chinese Medicines: schizonepeta, the root of fang feng, beef-steak plant leaf, fructus arctii, cicada slough, the fruit of Chinese magnoliavine, flos magnoliae liliflorae, cocklebur fruit and licorice root. In the foundation of these formulas, patients showing heavy cold symptoms can add angelica root and cassia twig; patients with heat syndromes can add chrysanthemum, tolium mori, mentha haplocalyx, and flos lonicerae. All under the principle to keep the whole formula not too hot or too cold. Other complications can be treated by adding corresponding medicines into the formula. At the end of this paper,2typical cases were included as examples.Conclusion:The common symptoms of allergic rhinitis are runny nose, sneezing, itchy nose, often it has a sudden onset, sudden recovery and repeated episodes as a feature. These characters of AR accords with the character of devil wind which is often wounding the upper part of the body, abrupt onset and varied changes, often combined with other causes. The notable doctor Chao Enxiang continued his thought to treat respiratory diseases by dispelling pathogenic wind", treat AR with an dispelling pathogenic wind approach. His feature in treating AR mainly to be his principle of "using pungent and balanced formulas", and he achieved good effect in clinical practice. Moreover it confirms the characteristics of Professor Chao Enxiang’s theory systems for the treatment of respiratory diseases. Therefore, inheriting naming methods of the "wind cough", the "wind asthma", his treatment of AR is named as "Wind congested nose" theory.