Chronic Cold And Allergic Rhinitis

Hi friends. I am Dr Sarabjeet Kaur. Today we are going to talk about chronic cold and allergic rhinitis. People get generally confused between allergic rhinitis and chronic cold, because the symptoms are the same. Running nose, sneezing and all. But then there is a difference between the symptoms of allergic rhinitis and chronic cold. In chronic cold the irritation in the nose is not very frequent, on the other hand the allergic rhinitis irritation is very very frequent. The sneezing is in multiple botches in allergic rhinitis and in chronic cold it is not that much. In chronic cold the discharges from the nose is thick in color and in allergic rhinitis the discharger are watery and transparent. Allergic rhinitis happens only when there is the interaction between the allergen and the nasal membrane. And chronic cold happens when there is a viral infection. Now chronic cold again happens along with the headache, fever, fatigue and other major symptoms like skin rashes and all. On the other hand allergic rhinitis although decreases the daily routine activities. Decrease the concentration decreases the ability of a person to work but then there is no general major symptom in allergic rhinitis apart from the discomfort. Management of both the diseases is more or less the same. Basically you need to avoid allergens in allergic rhinitis cases and in cases of chronic cold, it can be avoided if you are keeping a contact, if you are avoiding the contact between the people who are already suffering from chronic cold and if you keep on washing your hands frequently. On the other hand allergic rhinitis will happen if there is allergen present in the environment. So you really cannot ignore it. Allergic rhinitis is not curable but then, off course it is controllable. It can be controlled well with the help of medicines. Coming to the treatment part if we are talking about treatment of allergic rhinitis there are oral medications like anti stamens. And you know there are nasal sprays which are steroidal as well as non-steroidal. These are the management parts of the allergic rhinitis treatment. Again there is a new therapy came with the name of allergen immunotherapy. allergen immunotherapy is a therapy where the allergens which are causing allergy to you are injected in you skin with a period of week and then forth night, then monthly and then we gradually immunity is improved in the patient. So this is the treatment of allergic rhinitis. Wherein the cases of chronic cold the treatments are antibiotics, oral medication, nasal sprays, steroids and then finally nasal leverage and there is surgery of sinuses. Diagnosis is very simple. It can be done on the bases of case history, physical examination, or else there are some blood tests where in these can be checked. X-rays of the Para nasals and NCCT of the head. The alternative method like Unani medicines and homeopathic medicines are very very effective in treating allergic rhinitis and chronic cold. And in cases of chronic cold surgeries can also be avoided. That’s all for today.