1、 What is chronic bronchitis?
Chronic bronchitis is a common disease in respiratory medicine. In medicine, it refers to chronic inflammation of tissues around the trachea and bronchial mucosa. Its symptoms can be roughly described as cough, phlegm and asthma. Chronic cough is most obvious after getting up. If it is not treated in time, it may be accompanied by cough in the morning for life. Cough in the morning occurs frequently, and the sputum is often white or foam like. Chronic bronchitis is common in middle-aged and elderly people, and there is not much obvious reaction in the early stages of the disease. Only during the acute attack can dry and wet rales be heard on the back and both lung soles.
2、 What are the causes of chronic bronchitis?
If you have a long-term smoking habit, it is easy to cause bronchitis, which is also the most important cause of disease.
2) Infections caused by viruses, bacteria, and other factors are also important causes or exacerbations of bronchitis.
3) The decline in autoimmune function, as the body gradually weakens with age, can easily trigger chronic bronchitis when exposed to external stimuli.
4) Chemical infection, environmental factors, climate change, colds, self allergic factors, etc.
3、 How to prevent chronic bronchitis?
(1) Firstly, it is important to ensure good air circulation in one's long-term living environment. Daily attention should be paid to opening windows for ventilation, while also avoiding the intrusion of cold air. It is advisable not to stay in a sealed environment for extended periods of time.
(2) People with poor physical resistance can develop the habit of wearing masks on a daily basis and avoid going to densely populated areas.
(3) Pay attention to the mobile weather forecast push message and take measures to prevent and keep warm in advance to avoid catching a cold. In order to strengthen one's own immunity, it is advisable to cultivate one's own cold resistance. The spring and autumn seasons are more suitable for cold resistance training, but when feeling cold, it is still advisable to increase clothing appropriately and not try to be too strong. When encountering weather with large temperature differences between day and night, be prepared to add or remove clothes at any time to avoid catching a cold. If you have time, you can get vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible, while ensuring sufficient sleep time every day.
(4) Daily healthy diet should aim to eat small and frequent meals, with a diet that minimizes salt and oil intake. Avoid spicy, greasy, fried, and stimulating foods to prevent asthma from worsening. Eat more lung nourishing foods such as lily, lotus root, snow pear, lotus seed, white fungus, etc. For patients who cough up phlegm for a long time, their daily protein consumption will be relatively high, so they should consume some high protein, high calorie, and multi vitamin foods for timely supplementation, such as eating more bamboo shoots, carrots, white radishes, yams, pumpkins, mushrooms, peanuts, sesame, walnuts, red dates, etc.
(5) If you have a habit of smoking, you should stop it in time, because smoking can cause an increase in secretions in the respiratory tract of the human body, making it difficult for patients to expel phlegm, and creating an environment suitable for the growth of viruses and bacteria in the body, which can further worsen bronchitis.
(6) Pay attention to physical exercise, avoid sitting when you can stand, and avoid lying down when you can sit. Let yourself move to enhance your physical fitness and immunity.
4、 How to care for chronic bronchitis?
Firstly, provide the patient with a quiet and comfortable environment with suitable temperature and humidity, maintain good air circulation in the room, and avoid factors such as flowers, carpets, hair, smoke, and dust flying around.
2. It is necessary to ensure the intake of nutrients, vitamins, and proteins in daily life. Patients with severe chronic bronchitis should choose a light and liquid diet, eat more fruits and vegetables, and avoid using spicy and stimulating foods, dairy products, oil crops, and other foods that may trigger asthma.
3. Remind patients to drink plenty of water to replenish lost fluids, dilute sputum, and prevent constipation. For critically ill patients, intravenous fluid replacement can be given, but attention should be paid to the speed of fluid replacement and timely correction of water and electrolyte imbalance.
4. Intravenous injection of theophylline drugs after meals can effectively alleviate intestinal reactions in patients. It is important to note that the drug concentration should not be too high and the injection speed should not be too fast.
5. For patients with excessive phlegm and difficulty coughing up phlegm, help them adopt a semi sitting or sitting position, encourage them to cough more, gently pat their back and chest while coughing up phlegm to make the phlegm move, and when the phlegm is observed to be thick, encourage the patient to drink more water while avoiding contact with allergens.
6. Monitor the real-time changes in the patient's body temperature. When the body temperature is below the normal range, it is necessary to wipe the patient's armpit, carotid artery, or groin with a towel soaked in warm water or alcohol; When the body temperature is above normal, doctors promptly administer antipyretic drugs such as ibuprofen and pain relievers for targeted treatment.
7. Develop personalized exercise prescriptions, engage in limb function exercises, enhance resistance, and improve one's own disease resistance.
If the patient does not receive treatment on campus, their family members can install a simple atomization device at home, which is to fill a thermos or hot water kettle with hot water, invert a funnel at the mouth of the cup, and let the hot steam escape from the small leakage tube at the bottom of the funnel.
9. Remember that the nasal mucosa is the first barrier to our breathing and must be protected. Drinking plenty of plain water can not only accelerate metabolism in the body, but also keep the nasal mucosa moist. When we are in a relatively dry environment, it is easy for our nasal cavity to become dry during the process of inhaling and exhaling. If conditions permit, we can spray a little physiological saline on our nose. Without physiological saline, we can also wet our nasal cavity with pure water. We should be careful not to develop the bad habit of picking our nose.