Knowing the difference of asthma and bronchitis

Bronchitis is a lung condition which has similar symptoms with asthma. If you fail to distinguish the change, you might supply the wrong treatment to you and your child.

Home remedies are sought first when you experience coughing and difficulty in breathing. The question is, is it the right remedy?

You might ponder you are experiencing asthma so you may just depend on your inhaler. But the truth is, you are already suffering from acute bronchitis and you need other medicines.

Bronchitis is an illness that involves inflammation of the airways that lead to the lungs. There are two type of bronchitis – acute and chronis. These passages are called bronchi or bronchioles.

When the passages are infected and inflamed, there is excessive production of phlegm and airway becomes constricted. Then the lungs will exhale and inhale fewer amount of air.

Acute bronchitis is a quick term illness and commonly results to a flu-like infection. In the initial stage of illness, there is flu-like symptoms such as sore throat, runny nose and mild fever. Cough is present after a couple of days.

In asthma, there is no flu-like symptoms at the start of the illness. Both are discovered with wheezing sounds except that it is much worse in an asthma attack. Asthmatic people has more observable spasm in the air passages.

The chief complaint of bronchitis is mostly wet coughing. Asthma on the other hand is seen with dry cough and not as life-threatening as that of bronchitis. It principal complaint would be wheezing and difficulty breathing.

There is brief duration of appearance of signs and symptoms in acute bronchitis. But in asthma, symptoms are longer and repeated. In bronchitis, antibacterial drug is used for treatment unless it is caused by a virus wherein the symptoms are relieved with the use of an inhaler.

The causative agent of bronchitis could either be bacteria or viruses. Brought about by smoking and other environmental factors is chronic bronchitis. This is noncontagious. The communicable type of bronchitis is the acute.

Knowing which illness infected you and your family is crucial. The two may be similar in some form but may require different treatment. It is fairly difficult to diagnose it because both exhibit airway inflammation.

When in doubt, seek your doctor. In order to get an precise diagnosis, tell the truth about all your symptoms.

Both acute and chronic bronchitis are characterized by life-threatening coughing. Wheezing and trouble in breathing is the usual characteristic of asthma.

Once you recognize the differences between asthma and bronchitis, you will now be able to supply appropriate care.

Julie Bainbridge has been in the field of Bronchitis symptoms for a long time and have a site on Asthmatic bronchitis where you can get answers to the rest of your questions.