Winter hit: you have bronchitis

<p><strong>Winter and cough are eternal companions, like spring and puddles, summer and sunburned shoulders, autumn and the blues. Almost every cold that overcomes us is accompanied by a cough, which does not always go away along with the symptoms of acute respiratory infections.</strong></p>

Lung protection

In most cases, a cough is a bacterial infection that is associated with a viral respiratory disease. Simply put, you went to bed with a fever and runny nose, and a couple of days later a cough joined the “joys” that accompany ARVI. This is acute bronchitis. Sometimes it is mistaken for symptoms of tracheitis - inflammation of the respiratory tube, which is located between the larynx and the bronchi (trachea). But in this case, the cough is dry, without phlegm, paroxysmal and most often bothers you at night or in the morning. In acute bronchitis, the cough is wet, and this is the main symptom of the disease.

In principle, all people cough, even completely healthy ones. The bronchi, as part of the body's respiratory system, perform two tasks. The first is that they carry air into the lungs. Task two: this air “along the way” needs to be warmed and cleaned of impurities that can damage the delicate lung tissue. Dust, harmful suspensions, and pathogenic bacteria settle on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, including the bronchi. To cleanse the mucous membrane of all this, a special bronchial secretion is formed - this is the sputum that we cough up. Each of us does this from time to time.

Cough cannot be suppressed - this is a protective reaction of the body, but it can and should be alleviated with the help of expectorants. It is for this purpose that patients with acute respiratory infections are recommended to drink plenty of warm drinks, steam-moist inhalations (keep in mind that they cannot be done at elevated body temperatures!), decoctions and infusions of medicinal herbs - thyme, licorice, coltsfoot, calamus root, linden, marshmallow, raspberry, mint. When a person has what is called a productive cough, this prevents pathogenic bacteria from multiplying in the respiratory tract - they are better cleaned, the person with a cold recovers faster and there is less risk that the infection will reach the lungs.

Who else might be coughing and why?

There are quite a lot of possible causes of cough not related to acute respiratory diseases - about 50: the cough can be reflux (caused by the reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus), psychogenic, cough variant of asthma, etc. Here are the most common reasons.

Smoking. Tobacco smoke constantly damages the mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi; to protect them, a large amount of sputum is formed - hence the cough. A smoker's cough may go away for a while, intensifies in the mornings and in cold, damp weather, and does not leave a long-lasting after-cold illness. It is useless to treat it by continuing to smoke.

Problems with the nose. A constantly running nose - for example due to polyps in children, allergies or chronic sinusitis - can also be a cause of cough. The contents of the nasal sinuses flow down the back wall of the larynx, which is why a person constantly wants to, as they say, clear his throat. The first thing you need to do is clear your nose.

Medicines. There are drugs that have a side effect in the form of cough. This primarily concerns angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors—drugs for the treatment of heart disease.

Dust. A cough is a reaction of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract to irritation, including dust. Being in a very dusty room, a person coughs reflexively.

Tuberculosis. If a person coughs for more than 3 weeks, you need to look for the cause, without discounting the possibility of tuberculosis. Unfortunately, sometimes even a normal fluorography result is not a guarantee that tuberculosis is excluded.


From “just a cough” it’s not far to pneumonia

General practitioner Nikolay Pravednikov:

– If a cough with sputum appears against the background of ARVI, this means that a secondary bacterial infection has joined the viral infection. Pathogenic flora is constantly present in the human respiratory tract; due to the weakening of local immunity, it begins to become more active and causes inflammation of the bronchial mucosa. With ARVI, this almost always occurs on the second or third day after the onset of the disease.

If you have any cough, it is better to consult a doctor immediately. For some, it may be mild and will go away on its own - if the person has good immunity and behaves correctly during the illness. But there are people with reduced immunity or increased allergies: they first develop tracheitis, then bronchitis, and then pneumonia, which in such cases is difficult to treat, cannot be ruled out. And bronchitis itself is a very serious disease, accompanied by fever, bronchospasm, and shortness of breath. If all this continues long enough, for example, bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may develop.

You need to tell your doctor about this!

- After clearing your throat, you feel very weak and dizzy.
- The sputum has yellowish, greenish impurities or traces of blood.
- When coughing there is severe pain in the chest.
-You have a serious cough, but there is no sore throat or runny nose.
- Your condition first improved, then your body temperature increased again and a strong cough developed.
- You inhale easily, but cannot exhale.