Bronchitis treatment
Suffering from Bronchitis can be very painful, annoying, frustrating and tiresome. Having that nagging and often painful cough following you around can be such a burden and really interfere with your daily activities and your rest at night. Luckily there are some treatments that can help you with your bronchitis so you can get on with your life.
First let’s take a look at what Bronchitis is and then what type of treatments there are. There is actually no known cure for bronchitis, but it can be treated in order to lessen the symptoms and help prevent it from worsening. Bronchitis is caused when the bronchial tubes that bring air into the lungs become inflamed. When cells lining the bronchial tubes become irritated, they stop functioning properly causing the passages to become clogged. This can be brought on by smoking, viruses and bacteria.
There are two different types of Bronchitis, acute and chronic. When you have acute bronchitis it will usually be for just a few days. Most of the time acute bronchitis is caused by a virus, such as a cold. Chronic bronchitis however, is a condition that causes a person to have too much phlegm in their airways. This cough is often persistent and will be diagnosed after the patient has had the condition for several months. This condition is normally associated with smokers since 80-90% of the sufferers of chronic bronchitis are smokers. That is not to say that this condition cannot appear in other individuals.
For those who have acute bronchitis due to a viral infection, the symptoms may last 2-3 weeks before going away. Often times treating acute bronchitis with antibiotics are not beneficial. Most of the time acute bronchitis will heal on its own time. However, there are a few things that you may be able to do at home to help soothe your cough. Using pain relievers will help with the pain associated with intense coughing. If you are coughing continuously or very hard you could get a headache, chest ache or back ache. The pain medicines may be able to help take the edge off. Over the counter cough medicines may be able to help as well. If you get a cough suppressant, it will help lessen the urge to cough. If you take a cough expectorant it will help loosen the mucus in the airways to be coughed out. You can also try a hot steamy shower, a vaporizer or some menthol rubs for added benefit. Also drink plenty of fluids to help keep moisture in the body and loosen coughs as well. Within a few weeks your bronchitis shall pass and you will feel much better.
Chronic bronchitis is usually treated a bit differently in order to prevent further damage from being done to the lungs. Depending on how severe the bronchitis is and how long it has been left untreated, will determine the damage already done to the lungs and will also determine the path of treatment. If there has not been too much damage done, then the first course of treatment may be taking oral medications. There are also bronchodilators that would be inhalant medications to help open the airways. If the bronchitis is too bad then treating with a portable oxygen tank may be needed. For those who have chronic bronchitis due to smoking, there is no way to get any relief or feel better unless the person stops smoking.
If you have acute bronchitis you can try a few remedies of your own at home and expect to see results in 2-3 weeks. If the condition fails to improve then you will want to see your doctor in case you will need some further medical treatments. For sufferers of chronic bronchitis is very important to see your physician right away in order to prevent your condition from worsening to the point of causing permanent damage to the lungs.
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