Can respiratory diseases be cured

Most acute respiratory diseases can be cured. Chronic, degenerative or genetic immunity-related respiratory diseases currently cannot be completely cured. However, most of them can be controlled for a long time through standardized management and will basically not affect normal life and life span.

A while ago, we picked up a young girl who had just graduated from the outpatient clinic. She caught a severe cold due to the air conditioner and developed acute bronchitis. She coughed for almost half a month, but after taking X-rays, there was no major problem. She was prescribed appropriate antitussive and anti-infective drugs, and told her not to drink iced drinks. Within a week, she came back for a follow-up consultation and said she no longer coughed at all, and there were no any sequelae during follow-up visits. Acute respiratory diseases such as the common cold, acute tonsillitis, and bacterial pneumonia are mostly caused by exogenous pathogenic infections. As long as they are intervened in time and do not become severe, they can basically recover completely within 1 to 2 weeks without leaving any traces.

But if the damage to the respiratory tract has reached an irreversible level, the problem is not that simple. I have been caring for an old COPD patient for almost 5 years. When he was first diagnosed, his lung function was only 40%. He had to rest three times to go up two floors. He always asked me if he could "cut off the root". I told the truth every time: the damaged airways and alveoli are like paper that has been crumpled repeatedly. No matter how hard you rub it, it can't get back to a flat state. But as long as you follow the doctor's instructions, use inhalers, quit smoking, and get flu and pneumonia vaccines regularly, your condition can be completely stabilized. Now that he is 72, he can still walk around the community twice every morning, and his occasional cough does not affect his life. He is no different from the healthy old man around him.

Nowadays, there are always people on the Internet who advertise that it can "radically cure asthma" and "reverse pulmonary fibrosis." In clinical practice, we have seen many patients who stopped taking regular medicines and used folk prescriptions with the mentality of giving it a try, but many of them ended up in the emergency department with acute attacks. However, there are different views on whether chronic respiratory diseases can be considered "cured". For example, many children who had asthma in childhood may not have an attack for 20 to 30 years as their immunity develops after adolescence, and they may not need medication. Some doctors think that this is considered a clinical cure, while others think that potential airway hyperresponsiveness still exists, and may still cause an attack if there is a severe infection or allergen stimulation. There is actually no need to worry about this definition. As long as it does not affect normal life, it is the best result.

Speaking of it, our respiratory tract is actually like the exhaust duct at home. Sometimes dust and flying insects get in, and it can be as good as before after a simple cleaning. However, if it is smoked and dusted for many years, the pipe wall will be corroded and pitted, or even deformed and narrow. Even if the dirt is cleaned, the damage will have been left. We can only pay more attention to maintenance at ordinary times to avoid being too clogged and affecting its use. You don’t need to panic when you hear about chronic respiratory diseases. The current treatment options are very mature. As long as you don’t insist on it, don’t rely on folk remedies, and follow the doctor’s plan, most people can live quite comfortably.