How to prevent bronchitis in the early stages. Improvement of the child’s health: what can be done with frequent bronchitis. How does bronchitis appear?

Infection from the upper respiratory tract often spreads to the bronchi, causing acute bronchitis. This disease can last for many weeks, and without the necessary treatment it becomes chronic. How to prevent bronchitis? It is better to take care of the prevention of this disease than to treat it for a long time.

What to do to avoid bronchitis

The best prevention of bronchitis is to increase the body's potential. Before cold weather sets in, harden yourself with water while swimming, take a contrast shower and air baths, and do physical exercise. Due to improved blood circulation, all these measures mobilize the lymphatic system, which is the main guardian of your health.

How to prevent bronchitis - when cold weather sets in, do not create hothouse conditions for your body and do not wrap yourself tightly in clothes, so as not to become vulnerable to viruses and infections again. But, do not allow hypothermia, which can significantly reduce the body’s ability to fight pathogenic bacteria.

To prevent bronchitis and other respiratory diseases, use full breathing - breathe through the entire chest, it should expand from the diaphragm and thoracic region to the collarbone area. Such exercises should not be done in heavily polluted places.

Avoid staying for long periods of time in places where the air is polluted, including cigarette smoke. During an outbreak of a respiratory disease, avoid staying in crowded places, or apply oxaline ointment to your nose before going out to reduce the risk of infection.

How to prevent bronchitis - at work, don’t forget about bronchitis prevention. You need to regularly ventilate the room where you work. Disinfect the air with essential oils (pine needles, eucalyptus, rosemary). In summer, do not stay under the air flow from the air conditioner.

When you do get sick, at the first signs of an acute respiratory infection, do not wait for the inflammatory process to spread to the bronchi and lungs, start treatment immediately. The disease on the legs cannot be tolerated either. It is better to lie down for two or three days and carry out treatment.

Prevention of bronchitis is always relevant, and especially in the cold season. The bronchi are lined from the inside with a mucous membrane, which in a healthy state protects them from infections. The essence of preventive measures globally comes down to maintaining the required level of humidity in the respiratory tract. This is achieved in several effective ways.

Disease prevention

Like any other disease, it can be prevented with proper prevention. It includes a number of activities:

Actions to prevent bronchitis in children.

The menu, which strengthens the body and helps prevent respiratory diseases, includes a set of the following products:

lean meat;
fresh vegetables in large quantities, especially tomatoes, all types;
fruits, especially citrus fruits and berries;
dried fruits and decoctions from them;
honey in tea, cereals and;
Drink plenty of plain, clean water.

Such a diet is an option for proper healthy eating; it can be followed throughout life with seasonal additions of fruits and vegetables. Meals should be frequent - at least every 3 hours, in small portions. This diet serves as an auxiliary method for treating all types of bronchitis and colds.

According to statistics, inflammation of the bronchi most often occurs in heavy smokers or in people who spend a long time in rooms where there is a lot of dust. Prevention of bronchitis in these cases includes:

Performing breathing exercises such as Bodyflex.
Frequent walks in the fresh air, trips to nature.
Personal hygiene – washing hands after being outside or in public places.

Cardio exercises – performed with proper breathing technique, they contribute to better functioning of the bronchial glands. This provides the necessary moisture, and hence the health of the bronchial mucosa.

A healthy lifestyle is an effective method of preventing all diseases, not only bronchitis, and can be implemented at home.

With the first symptoms of acute respiratory viral infection or acute respiratory infections, the following measures must be taken:

Ensure that the air in living areas is moist, clean and cool.
Regular ventilation and wet cleaning are much more beneficial than they seem.
Avoid drying out the mucous membranes by drinking plenty of warm fluids.

A common cause of bronchitis is influenza and other colds. Vaccinations done long (a month to a month and a half) before the outbreak of the epidemic will help to avoid infection with them. You need to worry about this in advance and discuss the possibilities of vaccination with your doctor.

Actions to prevent bronchitis in children

Prevention of bronchitis in a child includes the following measures:

Ventilation of rooms, humidification of air. The air temperature should be between 17–20 degrees, humidity – at least 70%.
Eat a balanced healthy diet and drink plenty of fluids.
Physical activity, hardening.
If possible, avoid crowded places during epidemic periods.

Immune support

A healthy lifestyle is considered the most effective way to strengthen the immune system. Compliance with all its rules is guaranteed to reduce the risk of bronchitis by 70%. Additionally, you can support your immune system in the following ways:

Use of vitamin complexes, dietary supplements and homeopathic medicines. It is important to make sure there are no contraindications.
Herbal medicine – teas and baths with herbs will benefit people of any age.
Rest in resort areas.
Bath and sauna, especially using essential oils of coniferous trees and citrus fruits.
Monitoring psychological health, preventing depression with positive emotions and vivid impressions.

Spa therapy

Spa treatment is recommended for all people with chronic bronchitis and children for recovery from acute and obstructive forms of the disease. Conditions of stay in sanatorium-type institutions, with a characteristic daily routine and diet, strengthen the general state of health.

The most effective methods for treating bronchial inflammation in sanatoriums are:

A special massage of the back and chest strengthens local immunity and improves the functioning of the bronchial glands.
Speleotherapy is a long stay in salt rooms and breathing in vapors of sea salts.

Clean mountain, sea or forest air has a beneficial effect on the respiratory system and calms the nervous system.

Bronchitis is a common disease that, with proper timely treatment and subsequent prevention, does not pose a particular health hazard. Lifestyle, strengthening the immune system and visiting resort areas significantly reduce the likelihood of developing the disease.

Bronchitis is one of the diseases that affects the airways that pass through the mouth, nose and throat to the lungs. Actually, we breathe through the respiratory tract. Bronchitis, although not a deadly disease, is still not a gift, especially considering all these nasty wet wheezing in the chest. Fortunately, preventing the development of bronchitis is not a difficult task, as you will now see for yourself.

Steps

Lifestyle changes

Stop smoking! Studies have shown that smokers (including passive smokers) are more at risk of developing chronic bronchitis. Accordingly, it is important to quit smoking. Substances contained in cigarettes and smoke irritate the respiratory tract, irritating it and making it more susceptible to bacterial and viral infections.

Limit your contact with substances that irritate the lungs. Dust, chlorine, asbestos, sulfur dioxide - all of this can have a negative effect on your throat and respiratory tract. You see, irritated airways become inflamed quickly, and inflamed airways mean you'll get bronchitis 1) soon; 2) with a fairly high probability. If your job involves prolonged contact with such airborne irritants, then you should at least wear a protective mask on your face so as not to inhale all this dirt all day long.

After work, you should also take a shower to wash off any remaining dirt and, accordingly, not bring it home.

Try not to breathe too cold or damp air for long periods of time. Both humidity and cold are ideal conditions for the development of viral and bacterial microorganisms. In other words, being exposed to cold or damp conditions for long periods of time increases your chances of contracting a viral or bacterial infection.
- Actually, this is why bronchitis so often makes itself felt in winter, when it is cold outside and damp at home.
Keep your surroundings clean. A clean house is a house in which it will be easy for you to breathe, and for purely physiological reasons. Don't believe me? Let's go back - will it be easy for you to breathe in a dusty, dirty place? Please note that dust and bacteria are a tandem that works for the development of bronchitis. :
- Dust irritates your airways, causing sneezing and coughing. By sneezing and coughing, you irritate your airways even more, causing them to become inflamed, becoming an ideal environment for the development of microorganisms, and then, accordingly, bronchitis is not far away.
Eat to benefit your immune system. In particular, consume more vitamin C and zinc, since these substances are almost the most important for immunity. If you think that your immune system is so weak that it causes constant bronchitis, then try eating more foods with zinc and vitamin C.
- Vitamin C is found in lemons, grapefruits, pomelo, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwis, oranges, limes, pineapples, Brussels sprouts, spinach, onions, garlic and horseradish.
- There is a lot of zinc in spinach, mushrooms, beef, lamb and pork.
Take a multivitamin, especially in winter. To effectively fight infections (including bronchitis), your body needs vitamins and minerals. Multivitamin complexes containing vitamins A, B, C and E, as well as zinc and magnesium, are ideal for you.

Limit contact with people suffering from contagious diseases. The advice is obvious, we don’t argue. However, in fact, everything can be quite non-trivial. A colleague at work has a cold, a friend’s child has come down with the flu - we are literally surrounded by people who are sick with something, from whom we can become infected. And if you know that someone near you is sick, try not to pass by again. If you have to, wash your hands and don’t share your things with them.

Maintain personal hygiene. Again, wash your hands often. And not just like that, but with warm water, and with soap! So, you should wash your hands:
- Going to the bathroom, after traveling on public transport, being near someone who is sick, working with raw meat, after coughing and sneezing.
Get vaccinated annually. From October to December comes the hot season - bronchitis season! Accordingly, it would be appropriate to get vaccinated in advance with a vaccine, which will significantly reduce your chances of getting sick.

Treatment of diseases that cause bronchitis
1. Recurrent upper respiratory tract infections. In other words, diseases of the nose, nasal passages and nasopharynx should not be ignored. If infections are allowed to penetrate into those areas, the respiratory tract will be exposed to a semi-permanent source of infection, which is unlikely to have a positive effect on them.
  
  Cystic fibrosis. This is a genetic disease that causes the body to produce more mucus than normal, and this mucus is thicker than usual. This is why people with cystic fibrosis are more susceptible to respiratory tract infections - thick mucus prevents the epithelium of the respiratory tract from doing its job (filtration). Accordingly, in the absence of filtration of the air entering the lungs, the risk of encountering bronchitis is significantly higher.
  
  Immune system problems require you to be extra careful. A weak immune system allows even opportunistic microorganisms to do their dirty work! To avoid getting bronchitis while living with a weak immune system, you should be extremely careful and take all appropriate precautions (additional motivation: bronchitis is more difficult to cure with a weak immune system). Immune system problems in this context include severe allergic reactions, asthma, lupus, type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
  
  Remember that all diseases that limit the functions of the epithelium of the respiratory tract increase your chances of developing bronchitis. The surface of the epithelium of the respiratory tract is dotted with countless cilia, the task of which is to filter the air from the pathogens it contains that cause various diseases. In turn, ciliary dyskinesia and its subtype, Kartagener's syndrome, can lead to the fact that these same cilia will not move and, accordingly, filter the air. If you suffer from such illnesses and think that you are about to get bronchitis, consult a doctor immediately, as bronchitis in this case will be more severe than usual.

Or an acute respiratory viral infection, after which you begin to have a strong dry cough, your body temperature drops below 36.6 degrees or, on the contrary, rises above 38.0 degrees, consult a doctor immediately.

At low temperatures, you can apply a warming ointment to your chest and back or make a distracting compress of mustard plasters. Contact your doctor immediately in the morning. You will be prescribed an x-ray, biochemical and general blood tests, sputum analysis to detect viruses, and bronchoscopy.

Self-treatment of acute bronchitis is unacceptable, especially uncontrolled use of antibiotics. Most often, damage to the bronchi or trachea is caused by viruses, against which antibacterial drugs are powerless. Only a doctor can decide what treatment you need based on the results of the examination and tests.

You will be advised to take pharmaceutical drugs, bed rest, drink plenty of fluids, and take alkaline mineral waters. During the first days of the disease, it is effective to use mustard plasters, alcohol compresses on the chest, foot baths and turpentine-based ointments. If you have a severe dry cough, you will be prescribed medications with codeine, bronchodilators, vitamins A and C. You must treat acute bronchitis to the end, otherwise it will turn into a chronic disease.

Chronic bronchitis is diagnosed in patients who suffer from coughing with sputum for at least 3 months over a period of two years. The bronchial mucosa secretes an increased amount of sputum, which is difficult to cough up. In damp and cold weather, chronic bronchitis worsens and occurs with severe shortness of breath and high fever.

If you have been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis, your doctor will recommend taking medications if there are signs of a sharp exacerbation. Most often, the doctor prescribes antibiotics, which should be taken immediately at the first signs of exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.

You will also be prescribed bronchodilators. You should take these medications as soon as you feel an exacerbation, then you need to consult a doctor. You will be prescribed the necessary examination, which is usually used for acute bronchitis. Additionally, a spirogram will be performed.

Treatment of chronic bronchitis is carried out under the supervision of a doctor on an outpatient or inpatient basis.