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Ian Lloyd
Pharmacist
Peoples Pharmacy |
..... So what is Bronchitis anyways? If you break the word down you get “bronch”, which refers to the bronchi in the lungs, and “itis” which means inflammation. So bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi in the lungs. I know this doesn’t mean much now but I will go into more detail later. This is a timely topic because cold and flu season is approaching, which can lead to the development of bronchitis in some people. This month, I will talk about what bronchitis is, what its symptoms are, and what you can do to help prevent or treat it.
..... To learn about bronchitis it would be helpful to understand how your lungs work. The primary function of your lungs is to bring oxygen in and take the carbon dioxide out of your body. When you breathe in, air rushes in through your nose and mouth and down into your trachea. From there your trachea splits into two main bronchi; one for the left side and one for the right side of your lungs. Then your bronchi continue to divide and get smaller until they end at the alveoli, where the transfer of oxygen takes place. A good analogy is to compare the lungs to highways. Your car is the oxygen. The trachea is the highway. The bronchi are the ever-narrowing roads |
and residential streets, which finally end at the alveolus or various driveways.
..... Bronchitis usually flares up when there is some sort of irritant present in the lungs. It can be a virus, bacteria or pollution. The  most common cause of bronchitis is exposure to cigarette smoke. These foreign particles irritate the bronchi and your body responds in its usual manner; it causes inflammation and produces mucus to try and soothe the area. This leads to the first symptom of bronchitis: a productive phlegmy cough. All this mucus tends to prevent oxygen from reaching your alveoli, so also get symptoms of shortness of breath and fatigue. You might also you can
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experience a bit of chest pain.
..... Sometimes I am asked if bronchitis is like asthma? They are both obstructive lung diseases, but with asthma there is a constriction of the airways. The symptoms of asthma also tend to come on rapidly.
..... There are two general types of bronchitis, acute and chronic. Acute bronchitis flares up after a lung irritant is encountered. The most common cause of acute bronchitis is a cold or flu. It may start out as a dry cough that can be persistent and keep people up at night. This will usually change to a more productive, wet cough. There may be an accompanying fever, fatigue and/or headache. The tiredness and fever may last for a few days, but the cough can persist for two weeks or longer.
..... With chronic bronchitis the symptoms just never go away. This usually means that the lung irritant is constantly present, such as cigarette smoke or air pollution. With chronic bronchitis the bronchi create more mucus secreting cells. So the problem tends to compound a bit. One of the best options for chronic bronchitis is to avoid the lung irritant; i.e. quit smoking.
..... The treatment for acute bronchitis involves mostly non-drug options, because the condition will improve after 7-10 days with or |
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