More from WM on sinusitis (and opportunity for CM)

[Guest guest]

While ago I noted here an article surveying

sinusitis (viral, allergic, etc.) from a WM

viewpoint incidence rates, treatments, etc. In

particular noting that the actual incidence of

bacterial involvement amounted to ca. 0.5% to

2.0% of cases, but that some 40% of treated cases

were addressed with antibiotics.

 

Now it's reported(1) that there're new WM

guidelines (understanding of diagnosis and

treatment), and " an innovative new treatment. "

The guidelines(2) now recommend antibiotics only

for severe symptoms, or after 10-14 days still

no mention of testing for presence of bacteria.

… " Now is appears that the primary process is

inflammation within the sinus lining, and

infection is a secondary process. " The new

treatment is balloon sinuplasty, i.e. using a

balloon catheter in the nasal passages into the

sinuses. Advantage is less invasive, hence

shorter and easier recovery. The bottom line, to

my mind, is not much change, other than

abandoning the " long believed " , blatantly

non-evidence-based premise that bacterial

infection is the problem (the germ-theory bias).

 

This is interesting to us (CM practitioners) as

URT inflammation is quite easily and effectively

treated with CM, in particular herbal medicine,

from the simple patents such as Bi Yan Pian

( " nose inflammation tablets " ), through to more

customized Dx and Tx, e.g. treating earth/PiWei

deficiency which starves (being mother of)

metal/respiratory system. And the surgical

approach, traditional methods or, most likely,

also the new sinuplasty, often results in minor

or only temporary relief. When there's

hypersensitivity of the membranes to temperature,

viral or allergic agents, and often metabolic

weakness (piwei) that sustains such

hypersensitivity, structural (yin) alteration by

surgery will tend, over time, to be reversed by

damage from the functional (yang) chronic

inflammatory process. CM treatment of such

conditions strengthens the membrane functions vs

inflammation rather than suppressing the symptoms

(antihistamines, decongestants, etc.), and

longer-term treatment of systemic root factors

(often constitutional) builds sustained resistance to hypersensitivity.

 

 

 

*1 " HealthNews " newsletter (formerly published by

the publishers of the New England Journal of

Medicine, but since spun off to one of those

medical press mills in Florida), Vol. 12, No. 8, August 2006

*2 jointly from both the American Academy of

Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and the American

College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.