• Because they can become quickly weakened and/or disoriented due to lack of oxygen, it is up to you as caretaker to initiate an immediate asthma attack treatment.
• A severe asthma attack gives the sensation and panic of drowning, even though they are not under any water.
• Asthma Attack Treatment Must Be Immediate. Don’t delay treatment, call for help.

Asthma First Aid

• Make sure the patient is sitting up.
• Smile.  Appear calm and cool.  Don’t shout, unless absolutely necessary.
• Get the inhaler and a spacer, if possible.  Shake the inhaler.  Most asthma patients carry their inhalers with them on their person all of the time.  Have them take a puff, count to four, and then take another puff up to four puffs.
• Wait four minutes.
• If no improvement, try the puffing again.
• If still no improvement, call an ambulance.  They need hospitalization.

But, What If This Is A First Attack?

The asthma attack treatment is a little different when it’s the patient’s first asthma attack ever.  Since they didn’t know the attack was coming, they will not have any kind of inhalers on them.  The NAC of Australia recommends this first asthma attack treatment first aid:

• Don’t delay. Call an ambulance immediately.
• Ask if anyone around has an inhaler.  Use anyone’s inhaler.  This is not the time to show brand loyalty.
• Shake the offered inhaler.
• Have the patient puff, then fire the inhaler while patient does best at a deep inhale.
• Have patient hold breath for 4 seconds.
• Have patient try to take four normal breaths.
• Repeat until ambulance arrives.

Other Advice for Asthma Attack Treatment:

There are many things the asthma patient and his or her relative/significant other/roommate/whatever can ease the danger of a sudden attack, even if the other person is not around.

• One option is to get a bracelet or necklace saying that you have asthma.
• Another is to take your medication and follow your doctor’s orders.
• And, if you smoke, then you really need to cut back or stop.  You really don’t have an option.  Not only are you clogging up your lungs, but the smokes will most likely interfere with all of your asthma and/or bronchitis medications.

Of course things like common cold etc keep happening, but its the bigger things you have to guard against.

Is it true that pregnancy tend to contract bronchitis?

Yes, it is likely for pregnant women to get bronchitis, because during pregnancy, the uterus expands to provide more room for the growing baby.  However, this causes other organs, such as the lungs, to be compressed/pressured.  This often leads to more sinus infections in pregnant women—and sinus infections can lead to bronchitis.

• The simultaneous occurrence of bronchitis and pregnancy often inhibits the woman’s ability to breathe, which is dangerous for the baby’s health and development.
• Usually antibiotics or drugs would be the quick fix for this situation.  However, pregnant women must be careful about which drugs they take, because these too can damage the baby’s health.
• Anytime a pregnant woman is considering taking medicine of any kind, she needs to work very closely with her doctor to determine what is best for her health.

How To Avoid Bronchitis During Pregnancy? 

Here are some steps to take. First of all, women who are pregnant should avoid being around people with colds or bronchitis.  This means think twice before getting into crowded metros. Additionally, if a woman is pregnant during the flu season (December through March), then she should get the flu vaccine to protect herself from serious cases of pneumonia or influenza.

The basic difference between bronchitis and pneumonia is that bronchitis is primarily an inflammation of the air passageways called bronchi that lead from the trachea to the lungs. With pneumonia, there is an actual infection of the lungs with the alveoli (air sacs) filling up with fluid or pus, causing breathing problems.

Understanding the Differences in Bronchitis and Pnemonia

• Both bronchitis and pnemonia can start out innocuous enough from a cold or even an allergy.
• With bronchitis, you may develop a dry cough in the beginning but within a day or two you could have a moister cough which may bring up clear, yellowish or green phlegm.
• With pneumonia, the cough comes up from the lungs and may be green or spotted with blood.
• In terms of fever, you may get a mild one with bronchitis but pneumonia will usually cause you to have a higher fever of about 101?F or higher.
• In addition, the best way to determine pneumonia is to have a doctor x-ray your chest area. Bronchitis will present clear lungs while pneumonia will show signs of infection.

In treating bronchitis and pneumonia, it is also important to know whether they were caused by a virus or bacteria.

• Often, the doctor will test the mucus for signs of bacteria as well as conduct a blood test to verify things. When it comes to a bacterial infection, treating bronchitis and pneumonia will usually be through various forms of antibiotics.
• The blood and phlegm test will help doctors pinpoint what type of bacteria is present so that the proper antibiotic treatment can be chosen.

Treating Bronchitis and Pnemonia when Caused by a Virus

When a virus is the cause of these respiratory illnesses, there is no drug that can help so the infection has to run its course.

With bronchitis, it may take a week or two to clear up the infection and start feeling more normal. However, with pneumonia, the time frame could be several months because lungs take longer to heal.

• Treating bronchitis and pneumonia caused by viruses usually boils down to the symptoms. You can treat the symptoms and provide yourself some relief while the illness runs its course.
• Some remedies that can be used when treating bronchitis and pneumonia include breathing in steam several times a day either through a shower or vaporizer and drinking plenty of fluids like water, juice and soup which work to thin the mucus so that it can be expelled easier.
• Oxygen treatments may be necessary for viral pneumonia sufferers when breathing becomes labored or difficult.

Fortunately, there have been significant developments in the treatment of asthma in children.

Asthma in children affects children the same way this condition affects adults. The airways in the human body are constricted when an asthma attack occurs.

It often results in wheezing and a whistling sound when breathing. Asthma can also make the child feel as if their chest is very tight, and they often have a coughing spell.  It creates fear in children because they think they might die.

Asthma in children is the result of the same conditions as asthma in adults. Excessively hot, cold or moist air is often the trigger that causes an asthma attack. Smoke in the atmosphere can trigger an asthma attack in children and adults. Strenuous work or play can bring on an asthma attack.

Asthma In Children Can Be Controlled

There have been some significant developments that provide freedom for children affected by asthma. There are some great inhalers that children can use on their own if they have an asthma attack. These inhalers can be put in their pocket or backpack to be pulled out to relieve the symptoms of an attack. These inhalers provide security to children who might be worried that they could have an attack at any time.

There are also medications for asthma in children. These medications have been developed through expert medical research, and the treatments continue to improve. These treatments make the use of the inhalers less frequent.

Stress is often a cause of asthma, and the worry of having an attack can add stress to the lives of young children.

The medications and inhalers reduce the worry that young children might feel because of previous asthma attacks. Most young children today can live a fully independent life without worrying that they will have trouble breathing because of asthma.

Please read this as a guide and not as a medical opinion on your case.

Definition: Chronic Bronchitis is the result of inflamed air passageways but its similarity to acute bronchitis ends there. The chronic bronchitis can lead to disability and sometimes death when not treated properly or not diagnosed early.

Causes of Chronic Bronchitis

The cause of chronic bronchitis is the inhalation of substance in the air by the patients.

• The most common of these substances is smoke from cigarettes or tobacco.
• Other irritants to the bronchi and trachea that may lead to the chronic kind of bronchitis are air pollution, molds, dust and chemical fumes.

Medical practitioners usually diagnose an individual with chronic bronchitis by observing the patient’s symptoms and listening for indications of narrowed passageways in the lungs through a stethoscope.

Another way of diagnosing chronic bronchitis is to have a sputum culture to be able to identify the bacteria found there. This will help the doctor determine the course of action he will take to give the patient treatment to kill the bacteria.

A lung function test can also determine how much of your lungs you are using. The test can enable the medical practitioner to know how much air gets into your lungs. It is a painless test that is delivered very quickly with the use of a spirometer.

Treating chronic bronchitis may depend on the stage of the disease and the presence of other sickness or problems.

Patients are usually directed to stop smoking and to avoid second hand smoke and other pollutants and anti-inflammatory drugs are given to the patient to improve air passage to the lungs.

Changing to a healthy diet can also help improve the patient’s overall health and immune system.

If the lung function is anywhere below 80 percent then it is a good indication of chronic bronchitis or some other form of lung disease.

Please read this as a guide and not as a medical opinion on your case.

After a few days of that dry, wheezy cough, you will realize something is not right. Though this could be the symptom of many diseases or illnesses, it is most commonly a symptom of acute bronchitis.

Knowing what the symptoms of acute bronchitis are can help you to recognize your illness sooner, and prevent it from progressing into the more serious chronic bronchitis.

When To Expect The Symptoms Of Acute Bronchitis

It is good to know when symptoms of acute bronchitis usually occur. This will help you to look for warning signs of acute bronchitis. The symptoms typically begin about three to four days after an upper respiratory infection. If you have recently had a cold or a nasty case of the flu, then you should be on the look out for symptoms of acute bronchitis.

So What Are The Symptoms?

There are several common symptoms of acute bronchitis. The symptoms usually last for about two to three weeks. The main symptom of bronchitis is a cough. The cough might start out dry, but after a few days the cough usually progresses into a productive cough. This means it is bringing up mucus from the lungs, which may be yellow, green, or clear.

Although a cough is the main symptom of acute bronchitis, there are other symptoms as well. These symptoms include: fatigue, a mild fever, hoarseness, feeling short of breath, a tight or painful feeling in the chest, and wheezing.

When The Condition Becomes Chronic

Typically, acute bronchitis goes away after a few weeks by itself. However, if the case of bronchitis does not go away, then this means it might have progressed into chronic bronchitis. A form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis is typically found in smokers and people with other health problems.

Preventing Complications

If the symptoms of acute bronchitis are not recognized, the condition could develop and lead to other health complications. There are several complications that could possibly result from an undiagnosed and untreated case of acute bronchitis, including: pneumonia, sinusitis, cystic fibrosis, and repeated episodes of bacterial acute bronchitis.

A Mild Case

It is easier to diagnose a condition if you have some idea of what the symptoms are. Knowing the symptoms of acute bronchitis will allow you to recognize your condition and seek treatment before the condition becomes chronic or complicated.

While Bronchitis and Sinus Infection may share a few symptoms, for the most part, these illnesses occur in different parts of the body and therefore can be quite distinctive.

Bronchitis or Sinus Infection – The Differences

With bronchitis, your airways, also known as bronchial tubes, which lead from the trachea to the lungs, become inflamed due to irritants and infection. Bronchitis typically produces a cough in which phlegm is expelled. If a virus is the cause then no drugs are available to fight the viruses off. Occasionally, bacterial infections can be blamed for causing bronchitis.

In determining bronchitis or sinus infection, a sinus infection occurs when the hollow cavities around your eyes and cheekbones called sinuses become inflamed. This inflammation is typically due to inadequate drainage of mucus and fluids due to colds, infections, allergies and even physical deformities of the nose like a deviated septum. The primary symptoms of a sinus infection include some coughing when drainage occurs in the back of the throat as well as discolored nasal discharge, tenderness in the eye and facial area, aching teeth, fatigue, eye swelling, headaches and more.

Similar Treatment works for Bronchitis or Sinus Infection

When a bacterial infection is the cause of bronchitis or sinus infection, both conditions require a course of antibiotics as treatment. In addition, some of the home remedies used to ease the pain and discomfort of bronchitis or sinus infection will be the same too.

With both conditions, the inhalation of steam from a hot shower or a vaporizer alleviates some symptoms, only in different ways. The steam loosens the mucus lining the bronchial tubes to ease breathing and coughing in bronchitis whereas with sinus infections, the steam helps loosen nasal congestion so that you can blow your nose and expel the mucus in that manner.

For bronchitis or sinus infection, you could also eat spicy foods to help loosen and thin mucus thereby giving your body an easier way of expelling it. With bronchitis, the mucus is loosened in the chest area while mucus in the head area is loosened in sinus infections. And paying more attention to cleanliness by washing your hands and avoiding other sick people can go a long way in preventing both illnesses.

As you can see, there is little confusion in determining bronchitis or sinus infection. While each condition afflicts different parts of the body, similar treatments can help clear up both conditions.

How Bronchitis Occurs

As mentioned above, bronchitis often manifests itself on the tail end of a cold and therefore is most likely caused by a virus rather than bacteria. When a viral infection is the cause of bronchitis, antibiotics do not help this condition. In children, symptoms of bronchitis present themselves after a cold or even the flu and can even be the result of the measles or whooping cough.

Prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke from cigarettes and other tobacco products can lower the immune system of children, inviting more colds, thus inviting bronchitis as well. Heavy allergens in the air and even air pollution can be contributing factors of this respiratory illness.

Symptoms of Bronchitis in Children

Symptoms of bronchitis in children typically start with the common cold, so sore throat, coughing, mild fever and runny nose are all signs. You will also notice that with the cough that accompanies a cold, it may start off dry but as it turns moist, it could be a sure sign of bronchitis developing.

Other symptoms of bronchitis in children include shortness of breath and even some wheezing. Keep in mind however that asthma also shares these symptoms so only a doctor using a stethoscope to listen to the child’s lungs can make an accurate diagnosis.

Treatment and Recovery for Children with Bronchitis

With the onset of symptoms of bronchitis in children, you should immediately make an appointment with the doctor to determine that bronchitis is indeed the culprit. In many cases, a virus is the cause so you should do what you can to ease the symptoms of bronchitis in children to make them more comfortable, which in turn speeds up the recovery process.

Fluids such as water, juice and warm soup are all great at soothing the cough as well as thinning the mucus secretions so that they are easier to expel. Occasionally, body aches and mild fever could occur so a children’s pain reliever could be administered.

Steam from a shower or vaporizer also eases the symptoms of bronchitis in children and can be administered several times a day as needed.

For the most part, bronchitis clears up within five days to a week. However, if the symptoms of bronchitis in children last longer or recur frequently, a doctor can determine if there is an underlying condition which could be contributing to the problem.

A drug treatment of acute bronchitis may not work if the infection was caused by something viral. In this instance, the only thing you can do is alleviate the symptoms and make yourself comfortable while the virus-caused acute bronchitis runs its course.

The only way to determine whether this respiratory illness was caused by bacteria is for the doctor to run a blood test or even test some of the phlegm that was coughed up.

Drug Treatment of Acute Bronchitis

If indeed your bronchitis was caused by bacteria, there are a few options in regards to your drug treatment of acute bronchitis.

For children, milder antibiotics such as amoxicillin and zithromax are prescribed by the doctor. This drug treatment of acute bronchitis in kids is gentler to the stomach than heartier antibiotics that are prescribed to adults.

For the adults, tetracycline, biaxin, augmentin and erythromycin are among the antibiotic types that are typical in drug treatment of acute bronchitis.

It all depends on the causative bacteria as to which antibiotic in particular is prescribed by the doctor. In some instances, a hearty strain of bacteria may be taking up residence in your bronchial tubes and therefore requires a stronger antibiotic. When this situation occurs, the drug treatment of acute bronchitis is gemiflaoxacin, a drug that targets antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

For both children and adults, decongestants may be prescribed to speed up the process of loosening up mucus for expulsion.

Another drug treatment of acute bronchitis is the prescription of bronchodilators. This family of drugs is often in the form of an inhaler and works much like medications for asthma – they help open the constricted, swollen airways going to the lungs.

Other Treatment Options

Of course, non-drug treatments exist for acute bronchitis as well. These treatments include the use of a vaporizer to breath in steam which helps loosen swollen bronchial tubes. You might try adding eucalyptus, lavender or orange essential oil to the vaporizer as these do help in promoting easier breathing.

Many non-alcoholic and decaffeinated drinks and soups are also on the non-drug treatment of acute bronchitis. The fluids help loosen the mucus so that you can expel it from your body.

In all, there are a variety of treatment options to try and only your doctor can help you with a drug treatment for acute bronchitis caused by bacteria.

And someone with chronic bronchitis and even those with asthma can get asthmatic bronchitis.

It is also usual for asthmatic bronchitis patients to show signs and symptoms of chronic bronchitis and whatever prior treatments may have been taken to treat asthma will turn out ineffective and airways will continue to stay clogged and mucus will still gather in them.

Diagnosis

Even physical examinations undertaken in a clinic can fail to establish the proper diagnosis based solely on the symptoms of asthmatic bronchitis, because there are common symptoms for a number of conditions including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and also asthmatic bronchitis that can lead to confusion when diagnosing.

Therefore, the best means of diagnosing the problem would be through testing in the laboratory and also by carefully making physical examinations.

• Asthmatic bronchitis is also likely to occur amongst patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.
• In addition, the disease is also caused due to being exposed to irritants that are outside of the body rather than because of internal viruses and also bacteria.
• Sometimes, extreme cases of respiratory problems that occur during childhood coupled with a poor immune system and also hyperactivity affecting the respiratory tract is other factors that cause an onset of asthmatic bronchitis.
• And smokers that have a chronic bronchial condition can be at risk of developing this disease and the usual symptoms of such a condition include coughing, breathlessness, wheezing and also feeling discomfort in the chest when trying to breathe.

Since this disease does cause respiratory tract obstructions, it follows that any treatment given to the patient should be effective in freeing the airways from the blockage within, and to also combat internally the bacteria that may have caused the problem in the first place.

The treatment recommended most often is known as bronchodilators which are effective in making clogged airways become decongested and gets rid of the mucus.

Asthmatic bronchitis can also lead to grave complications that are known as pulmonary bacterial infections which will require a prolonged and on going treatment regime, and if you suffer from such a malady, you should make it a point to keep away from irritants such as smoke from cigarettes, chemical, pollutants, dust and also alcohol vapors.