Common mistakes when treating bronchitis at home
Bronchitis is a common respiratory disease. However, many people are often subjective, arbitrarily monitor and treat at home, causing dangerous complications.
Signs of bronchitis
To detect early signs of bronchitis, patients can pay attention to the following signs and symptoms:
- Cough and difficulty breathing: The patient may start with a dry cough, possibly with phlegm, and difficulty breathing. Coughing can occur both during the day and at night. Coughing is often one of the first signs of bronchitis.
- Change in the sound of the cough: The cough may become worse or more wheezy.
- Chest pain: The patient may feel chest tightness and chest pain due to inflammation in the bronchi.
- Changes in breathing, the patient feels faster breathing and has difficulty breathing.
- Fatigue and irritability: This is a symptom of loss of energy when breathing is affected.
- Mild fever: Some patients may have a mild fever with bronchitis. However, not all cases have a fever.
How to treat bronchitis
Treatment of bronchitis usually focuses on reducing symptoms and supporting the recovery process. Many patients often treat bronchitis at home. However, there are often some mistakes that lead to dangerous complications such as:
- Self-treatment. Nowadays, people often use old prescriptions, online prescriptions or buy drugs at pharmacies. This is a common mistake when patients choose and use drugs without a doctor's guidance. This can lead to ineffective use of drugs or cause unwanted side effects.
- Failure to follow the correct dosage. Failure to follow the prescribed dosage is also a common mistake. This can reduce the effectiveness of treatment and increase the risk of recurrence or complications.
- Not ensuring a healthy living environment. Unhealthy living environments, air pollution, and exposure to irritants such as cigarette smoke can increase symptoms and prolong recovery time.
- Not getting enough rest. Patients need to get enough rest to allow their bodies time to recover and recuperate. Not getting enough rest can increase fatigue and worsen symptoms.
- Not seeking medical advice and supervision. A big mistake is not seeking medical advice and supervision from a respiratory specialist. Bronchitis can cause serious complications such as pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, or severe difficulty breathing. Therefore, seeking help from a medical professional is very important.
- Delay in seeking medical help. If the symptoms of bronchitis do not improve after a certain period of time or become more severe. At this time, the patient needs to seek medical help immediately. Moreover, delaying in seeking medical attention can lead to complications and the child's health can be more seriously damaged.
Bronchitis is a disease that can cause complications. It requires careful attention and monitoring. Patients should visit medical facilities to ensure effective treatment and avoid mistakes that can be harmful to health.
Distinguishing between bronchitis and asthma
Bronchitis and asthma are both respiratory diseases with a common symptom of cough, so in many cases these two diseases are often confused. Therefore, doctors must check clinical signs and symptoms to make a diagnosis.
Signs of bronchitis
Bronchitis is an inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes in people who have no previous damage. It is usually caused by bacteria, viruses, or both. Cigarette smoke, air pollution, and exposure to other irritants can also cause bronchitis.
People with bronchitis often have symptoms: frequent cough, persistent cough, may have white, clear, yellow or green phlegm, may have blood. In addition, there are systemic symptoms such as: fever, chills, fatigue, muscle pain, shortness of breath or chest tightness.
Symptoms of asthma
Asthma or bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition of the airways, which increases airway responsiveness (spasm, edema, increased phlegm secretion) causing obstruction and limitation of airway airflow. Asthma patients often have symptoms of wheezing, difficulty breathing, chest tightness and recurrent coughing. In addition, these symptoms often occur at night and early morning, and can recover naturally or with medication...
There are many causes of asthma attacks, of which allergens are the most common. Allergens that can trigger asthma attacks include: respiratory allergens, food allergens, drugs, infectious agents, etc.
Non-allergic agents that trigger asthma attacks can include genetic factors or upper respiratory tract infections (sinusitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, etc.).
