The diagnosis of pneumonia can be alarming--and indeed sometimes this disease is serious. Given the advances of modern medicine, however, these days most cases clear up rapidly with the right combination of drugs and common sense.
Pneumonia is not one illness but many. This infection of the lungs is caused by inhaling some sort of nasty organism when your immune defence system is down, usually because of a cold, the flu or a chronic disease. The perpetrator may be any of hundreds of strains of viruses, bacteria or other microorganisms. These germs get into your alveoli, the small air sacs deep in your lungs, causing the lungs to become inflamed and the alveoli to fill with mucus.
The symptoms of pnuemonia vary widely, depending on what is causing your specific infection. If it's bacteria, you'll probably have a sudden onset of illness, with fever, shaking chills, chest pain and a productive or 'wet' cough that expels sputum from your lungs. Viruses and organisms called mycoplasma usually cause milder symptoms, including a headache, low-grade level, hacking or 'dry' cough and general malaise. (It is mycoplasma, for instance, that produces what's called walking pneumonia because it's usually not severe enough to confine you to bed or hospital.) And when pnuemonia strikes an elderly person, the signs can be very different---often just rapid breathing and sometimes confusion.
If you contract pneumonia outside a hospital---formally called community-acquired pneumonia--it is likely to be less severe than a hospital-acquired case. Infants, young children and adults over age 75 are much more likely to get pneumonia than the general population, as are people with compromised immune systems. It is measuring to note that when pneumonia fatalities do occur, it is usually as the final complication of some other serious condition.
LIKELY FIRST STEPS
Because pneumonia has so many different causes, there are various ways to treat it. Fortunately, up to 75 percent of cases can be dealt with at home. Unless your doctor wants you hospitalised, by far your best plan is to rest in bed and take your medication and you are likely to feel better in a few days. For several days or weeks after that, you may still cough and feel more tired than usual, but in most cases your lungs will end up as good as new. However, certain patients, especially heavy smokers or the chronically ill, may take months to recover fully. Four to six weeks after treatment, see your doctor for a follow-up visit to make sure the entire episode is history.
If you are at home, be on the alert for any of the following: a fever that reaches 40 degrees C, difficulty breathing,
Treatment Options
MEDICATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Antibiotics For bacterial or mycoplasmal pneumonia.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Antivirals/antifungals Depending on type of infection.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cough medicine Supplements or expectorants, as necessary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analgesics Good for fever and pain related to coughing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flu/pneumonia vaccines Protect against germs that cause pneumonia.
PROCEDURES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supplemental oxygen Makes breathing easier; rarely needed.
LIFESTYLE CHANGES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bed rest Until fever passes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluids Prevent dehydration; loosen mucus.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steam inhalation Helps you loosen and expel infected sputum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heating pad Relieves chest pain.
a rapid pulse rate (125 beats a minute or faster), a drop in blood pressure that makes you feel dizzy or blush skin. These are signs of a severe infection and you should go to hospital right away.
TAKING CONTROL
Some types of pneumonia can become severe within hours, so in the early stages your doctor may want to keep you under supervision in the hospital. This is especially true if you're an older person, a smoker or you have a compromised immune system. Also, your doctor may decide that you need intravenous drugs. That said, studies show that there is too much unnecessary hospitalisation for pneumonia. According to one study, 30 percent of pneumonia patients now routinely hospitalised could be treated safely at home and another 20 percent could be sent home after a brief stay for observation. So always ask your doctor why hospitalisation is required.
Medications
If your pneumonia is bacterial or mycoplasmal, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics. Those commonly used include a group called macrolides, such as erythromycin and roxithromycin (Rulide, Biaxsig). Anothe possibility is fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin (Ciproxin), or the tetracyclines, such as doxycycline, or the combination of amoxycillin-clavulanate (Augmentin). Most mild viral pneumonias clear up by themselves; for severe cases, you may need an antiviral drug, such as acyclovir or ribavririn. Fungal pneumonia is treated in hospital with intravenous antifungal drugs, such as amphotericin B.
For pain, ask your doctor about taking analgesics such as aspirin or paracetamol. There are also a number of cough medicines: expectorants with guaiphenesin ( found in Robitussin and Brondecon) help loosen mucus while allowing your cough to bring up infected material. Cough suppressants turn off your cough reflex and may slow your recovery because your lungs need to expel the infected material. For a dry, persistent and nonproductive cough, however, your doctor may recommend a suppressant (Duro-Tuss) so that you can get some sleep.
If you are age 65 or older, get the pnuemonia vaccine, which is effective against 88 percent of strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common pneumonia-causing bacteria. You should also get the vaccine if your are in a high-risk group-for example, if you have heart, lung or kidney or are HIV-positive. In the past, the vaccine was given just once in a lifetime but it is now recommended you have a booster every five years. And don't forget your nearly flu injection: pneumonia often strikes as a complication of influenza.
HOW TO CLEAR YOUR LUNGS
Clearing your breathing passages makes it easier to get rid of infected sputum. Here are some suggestions:
Inhale steam. Loosen mucus by breathing in steam from a pot of hot water for 10 minutes morning and evening. Add a drop of eucalyptus oil to the water.
Use a humidifier. Making the air most will help thin sputum. Clean the device with bleach every week to keep it free of fungus.
Take hot showers. Let the water stream over your face and breathe in the steam.
Try postural drainage. Lie with your head below your torso so that gravity pulls fluids towards your throat.
Ask about incentive spirometry. This device has a breathing tube and guage, which measure air entering and leaving your lungs. Exhale, then inhale as strongly as possible to raise the gauge. This exercises your lungs while it measures how well you're recovering.
Try deep or rhythmic breathing. Tap lightly on your chest to loosen mucus or have someone else tap on your back. Inhale deeply and rhythmically three or four times. Cough deeply to try to produce sputum. To reduce any pain during coughing, hold a pillow tightly against your chest or lie on the side that hurts. Repeat the entire procedure every four hours.
Lifestyle changes
Getting pneumonia may give you immunity to one strain of micro-organism but there are hundreds more out there that can still attach. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help prevent reinfection with pnuemonia (or with colds and flu that can lead to pnuemonia) and reduce its severity if you do contract it. Try to follow some commonsense guidelines: eat a nutritious diet, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, get the sleep you need and wash your hands frequently. Above all, stay away from cigarettes.
To speed your recovery: rest in bed until your fever disappears. Drink lot of fluids--at least eight glasses of water or other liquids per day to help thin mucus. Do steam inhalation. This and other techniques to loosen lung secretions are very effective (see Sinusitis on later). Use a heading pad on your chest for 10 minutes at a time, as needed; make sure it's on a low setting.
PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS
If you're having trouble breathing, your doctor may give you supplemental oxygen through a face mask or nose tube. Fortunately, only in rare instances does someone with pneumonia require a mechanical ventialtor, a machine that assists breathing.
The only complication of pnuemonia requiring a surgical procedure occurs when fluid builds up in the area between your lungs and your chest wall (the pleural space). If this happens, your doctor may perform a procedure called a thoracentesis, in which a needle is inserted through your chest wall and the fluid is drained so that you can breathe more easily.
Natural methods
Outlook
What is happening
Pneumonia is not one illness but many. This infection of the lungs is caused by inhaling some sort of nasty organism when your immune defence system is down, usually because of a cold, the flu or a chronic disease. The perpetrator may be any of hundreds of strains of viruses, bacteria or other microorganisms. These germs get into your alveoli, the small air sacs deep in your lungs, causing the lungs to become inflamed and the alveoli to fill with mucus.
The symptoms of pnuemonia vary widely, depending on what is causing your specific infection. If it's bacteria, you'll probably have a sudden onset of illness, with fever, shaking chills, chest pain and a productive or 'wet' cough that expels sputum from your lungs. Viruses and organisms called mycoplasma usually cause milder symptoms, including a headache, low-grade level, hacking or 'dry' cough and general malaise. (It is mycoplasma, for instance, that produces what's called walking pneumonia because it's usually not severe enough to confine you to bed or hospital.) And when pnuemonia strikes an elderly person, the signs can be very different---often just rapid breathing and sometimes confusion.
If you contract pneumonia outside a hospital---formally called community-acquired pneumonia--it is likely to be less severe than a hospital-acquired case. Infants, young children and adults over age 75 are much more likely to get pneumonia than the general population, as are people with compromised immune systems. It is measuring to note that when pneumonia fatalities do occur, it is usually as the final complication of some other serious condition.
- Antibiotics if your pneumonia is caused by bacteria.
- Best rest and plenty of fluids to allow your body to begin to heal itself.
- Expectorants for your cough to bring up sputum and help clear your lungs.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- What should I do to prevent passing pneumonia to other members of my family?
- When can I return to my daily activities?
- Am I likely to develop any lingering aftereffects or other chronic health problems, such as asthma?
Treatments
Because pneumonia has so many different causes, there are various ways to treat it. Fortunately, up to 75 percent of cases can be dealt with at home. Unless your doctor wants you hospitalised, by far your best plan is to rest in bed and take your medication and you are likely to feel better in a few days. For several days or weeks after that, you may still cough and feel more tired than usual, but in most cases your lungs will end up as good as new. However, certain patients, especially heavy smokers or the chronically ill, may take months to recover fully. Four to six weeks after treatment, see your doctor for a follow-up visit to make sure the entire episode is history.
If you are at home, be on the alert for any of the following: a fever that reaches 40 degrees C, difficulty breathing,
Treatment Options
MEDICATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Antibiotics For bacterial or mycoplasmal pneumonia.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Antivirals/antifungals Depending on type of infection.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cough medicine Supplements or expectorants, as necessary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analgesics Good for fever and pain related to coughing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flu/pneumonia vaccines Protect against germs that cause pneumonia.
PROCEDURES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supplemental oxygen Makes breathing easier; rarely needed.
LIFESTYLE CHANGES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bed rest Until fever passes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluids Prevent dehydration; loosen mucus.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steam inhalation Helps you loosen and expel infected sputum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heating pad Relieves chest pain.
a rapid pulse rate (125 beats a minute or faster), a drop in blood pressure that makes you feel dizzy or blush skin. These are signs of a severe infection and you should go to hospital right away.
TAKING CONTROL
- Avoid polluted air. Exposure to high levels of car exhaust or industrial smoke increases the risk of the development of pneumonia and other cardiopulmonary diseases.
- Eat your veggies. Orange, yellow and dark-green vege-tables (and fruit), such as oranges, carrots and brococoli, are rich in antioxidants that can give a boost to your immune system.
- Don't take antibiotics at the first sign of a cold in an effort to prevent future bouts of pneumonia. Antibiotics cannot fight a viral cold and they can also encourage development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Some types of pneumonia can become severe within hours, so in the early stages your doctor may want to keep you under supervision in the hospital. This is especially true if you're an older person, a smoker or you have a compromised immune system. Also, your doctor may decide that you need intravenous drugs. That said, studies show that there is too much unnecessary hospitalisation for pneumonia. According to one study, 30 percent of pneumonia patients now routinely hospitalised could be treated safely at home and another 20 percent could be sent home after a brief stay for observation. So always ask your doctor why hospitalisation is required.
Medications
If your pneumonia is bacterial or mycoplasmal, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics. Those commonly used include a group called macrolides, such as erythromycin and roxithromycin (Rulide, Biaxsig). Anothe possibility is fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin (Ciproxin), or the tetracyclines, such as doxycycline, or the combination of amoxycillin-clavulanate (Augmentin). Most mild viral pneumonias clear up by themselves; for severe cases, you may need an antiviral drug, such as acyclovir or ribavririn. Fungal pneumonia is treated in hospital with intravenous antifungal drugs, such as amphotericin B.
For pain, ask your doctor about taking analgesics such as aspirin or paracetamol. There are also a number of cough medicines: expectorants with guaiphenesin ( found in Robitussin and Brondecon) help loosen mucus while allowing your cough to bring up infected material. Cough suppressants turn off your cough reflex and may slow your recovery because your lungs need to expel the infected material. For a dry, persistent and nonproductive cough, however, your doctor may recommend a suppressant (Duro-Tuss) so that you can get some sleep.
If you are age 65 or older, get the pnuemonia vaccine, which is effective against 88 percent of strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common pneumonia-causing bacteria. You should also get the vaccine if your are in a high-risk group-for example, if you have heart, lung or kidney or are HIV-positive. In the past, the vaccine was given just once in a lifetime but it is now recommended you have a booster every five years. And don't forget your nearly flu injection: pneumonia often strikes as a complication of influenza.
HOW TO CLEAR YOUR LUNGS
Clearing your breathing passages makes it easier to get rid of infected sputum. Here are some suggestions:
Inhale steam. Loosen mucus by breathing in steam from a pot of hot water for 10 minutes morning and evening. Add a drop of eucalyptus oil to the water.
Use a humidifier. Making the air most will help thin sputum. Clean the device with bleach every week to keep it free of fungus.
Take hot showers. Let the water stream over your face and breathe in the steam.
Try postural drainage. Lie with your head below your torso so that gravity pulls fluids towards your throat.
Ask about incentive spirometry. This device has a breathing tube and guage, which measure air entering and leaving your lungs. Exhale, then inhale as strongly as possible to raise the gauge. This exercises your lungs while it measures how well you're recovering.
Try deep or rhythmic breathing. Tap lightly on your chest to loosen mucus or have someone else tap on your back. Inhale deeply and rhythmically three or four times. Cough deeply to try to produce sputum. To reduce any pain during coughing, hold a pillow tightly against your chest or lie on the side that hurts. Repeat the entire procedure every four hours.
Lifestyle changes
Getting pneumonia may give you immunity to one strain of micro-organism but there are hundreds more out there that can still attach. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help prevent reinfection with pnuemonia (or with colds and flu that can lead to pnuemonia) and reduce its severity if you do contract it. Try to follow some commonsense guidelines: eat a nutritious diet, maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, get the sleep you need and wash your hands frequently. Above all, stay away from cigarettes.
To speed your recovery: rest in bed until your fever disappears. Drink lot of fluids--at least eight glasses of water or other liquids per day to help thin mucus. Do steam inhalation. This and other techniques to loosen lung secretions are very effective (see Sinusitis on later). Use a heading pad on your chest for 10 minutes at a time, as needed; make sure it's on a low setting.
- Telithromycin, a new type of antibiotic called a ketolide, is likely to become available soon for the treatment of community-required pneumonia. Telithromycin is intended to combat bugs that have grown resistant to older antibiotics. Concerned that the new drug might, in some cases, cause liver and heart problems, additional safety studies are being conducted and involve close monitoring for side effects. But if telithromycin passes those tests, it could prove to be a useful addition to the antipnuemonia arsenal.
If you're having trouble breathing, your doctor may give you supplemental oxygen through a face mask or nose tube. Fortunately, only in rare instances does someone with pneumonia require a mechanical ventialtor, a machine that assists breathing.
The only complication of pnuemonia requiring a surgical procedure occurs when fluid builds up in the area between your lungs and your chest wall (the pleural space). If this happens, your doctor may perform a procedure called a thoracentesis, in which a needle is inserted through your chest wall and the fluid is drained so that you can breathe more easily.
Natural methods
Outlook
No comments:
Post a Comment