If you are suffering from chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, acute bronchitis seems like nothing more than a cold. This condition is one in which severity is a serious issue for your well being.
Chronic bronchitis is a lung disease. It, along with emphysema, is known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This condition is one that refers to the obstruction of the air passageways that stops you from breathing normally. You can have both emphysema and chronic bronchitis at the same time.
Here are some facts you should know about chronic bronchitis.
It is estimated that some 11 million people in the United States alone have chronic bronchitis or emphysema yet many moer are believed to suffer from it but are under diagnosised by it. In the population of aged Americans, of a frightening 700,000 hospital discharges, 70 percent of them were in people that are over the age of 65 (in 2004) showing the real risk that this condition poses to those that are older.
Those that suffer from chronic bronchitis start by having an inflammation of their bronchial tubes. These are your air passageways, remember and therefore are very important to be clear so that air can move easily in and out of them allowing you to breathe.
During your initial bouts of chronic bronchitis, your symptoms are the same as those that a person with acute bronchitis will face. There is a heavy discharge of mucus from your coughing and the cough itself is a tell tale sign of chronic bronchitis.
One thing that your doctor’s will determine is if there is something else wrong that could possibly be causing your bronchitis in the first place. Some will have additional conditions like asthma that can lead to this problem. But, when there are no underlying causes, bronchitis can be labeled as the cause of your illness and then treated as such.
When you have a bronchitis bout, your bronchial tubes become inflamed and swollen. Each time that this happens, the lining of those tubes becomes scarred. Over time, the more irritation that happens the more excessive mucus production will become. Your tubes lining will become thickened because of the scarring.
As this happens, your cough becomes more and more troublesome. The excessive mucus and the scaring lead to problems with air flow. You can’t breathe as easily as you did. Still, the progression worsens so that your lungs become scarred themselves.
At this point, there is also the addition of bacteria in your lungs and tubes. The location becomes perfect for the breeding of bacteria which eventually cuts off all flow of air to your lungs, causing death.
As horrible as that sounds, many people will die each year from the effects of chronic bronchitis.
A key point that you need to take from this e-book is the fact that chronic bronchitis does not happen overnight. It doesn’t come on one day out of no way and cause you to die. It is a condition that happens and worsens over time. It is also a condition that can be treated, slowed and in some cases reversed, meaning you can get through it!
As you will see in the next chapter, you can get to the point of preventing and improving your life circumstances even if you have bronchitis.
Many patients do not get to the doctor until their bronchitis is in a severe state. When this happens, their condition is worsened. But, why don’t people just get to the doctor? The answer to that lies in the fact that many mistakenly believe that bronchitis is not a dangerous, life threatening condition that it is.
In fact, most of those that do get to the doctor get there when their condition is severe and advanced. Usually their lungs have already been scarred and are seriously injured.
When you reach this stage of chronic bronchitis, your condition can lead to additional problems such as respiratory problems (problems breathing easily) or even heart failure, which in itself is life threatening.
Yet, many cases can be lessened in severity of the proper doctor’s advice were to be gotten and taken to prevent it from worsening.
COPD is shared by both chronic bronchitis and emphysema because many patients that have one will also have the other. In this condition, the problem lies in the alveoli which are inside of the lungs. This is the location where your body takes oxygen from the air you breathe and exchanges it with carbon dioxide that is already in the blood.
The alveoli, which are also called air sacs, have very thin, soft and very fragile walls. When these walls are damaged, they can’t be fixed and there’s no way to replace or reverse the damage to them. Usually, small holes develop in their tissues especially in the lower lung area.
Since your body needs these air sacs to provide oxygen to the body and to remove the carbon dioxide from your blood, it is vitally important to keep them in good condition. Yet, slowly, as each one is damaged by holes, they become useless and stop functioning.
As more and more are destroyed in this manner, your body is less likely to get all of the oxygen that it needs into its bloodstream. This is characterized on the outside by you not getting enough air, which leaves you breathless.
When you can’t catch your breath, this is why. And, it only worsens from here. In the next step of the problem, your lungs lose their elasticity, or their ability to stretch and come back into shape.
When this occurs, the body can’t keep your airways open enough for you to bring air into the body for use. When this happens, you have a lot of problem trying to exhale or get the air you take it out of your body again.
As you can see, this condition is just as drastically frightening and worrisome as that of chronic bronchitis. When the two are paired together, this is an even worse condition for you to be in.
Just like chronic bronchitis, emphysema doesn’t come on quickly, either. This is a condition that develops and worsens over time. Usually, it happens very slowly, too, giving you the time that you need to improve your condition by seeking medical attention, although most will not do so until it is much too late to get that help.
Usually, emphysema is brought on by the exposure to cigarette smoke. IT can take years to develop into this level of severity and usually during that time, you are being exposed to cigarette smoke either as the smoker or even as a second hand smoker.
Most of those diagnosised, some 90 percent, are over the age of 45. Most of them are males, up to 55 percent, but both sexes are faced with the risk of emphysema is they are smokers or live in an area where smoking is commonly breathed in.
If you have emphysema, you will have the cough that we’ve talked about as well as shortness of breath, and the inability to exercise. Your doctor will consider your current condition, your pulmonary function test results as well as x-rays to determine your condition.
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