Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Bronchitis
Almost always viral: the cough may last weeks and usually needs no antibiotics.
Also known as: bronchitis · cough · cold cough
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
In acute bronchitis it is not the lung tissue that is inflamed but the lining of the bronchi — the airways branching down from the main tube. The cause is almost always viral, usually following a cold. The irritated lining swells, makes more secretion and turns oversensitive; out of that comes the cough that stays long after the infection is over. That very duration is the commonest reason for worry and for unnecessary treatment: a cough of two to three weeks is the normal case, not the sign of a neglected illness. The colour of what is coughed up also says less than generally assumed — yellow or green comes from enzymes of cleared-away immune cells and proves no bacterial involvement. Antibiotics barely shorten ordinary bronchitis, while side effects and resistance are real. The useful question is therefore the other one: what speaks against a harmless bronchitis and for pneumonia, for asthma, for whooping cough or for another reason? Persistent high fever, breathlessness, pain on breathing, a poor general state or a cough beyond eight weeks are the points where a closer look is taken.
Keeping that one figure in mind saves most of the worry and most of the unnecessary treatment. A cough lasting beyond eight weeks is by contrast a topic of its own and belongs investigated.
None of it shortens the illness, all of it makes it more bearable. That is an honest difference, not a contradiction.
A cough suppressant can save a sleepless night but slows the clearing. On expectorants in acute bronchitis there are few studies — they usually do no harm and do not shorten the course.
Smoke paralyses the fine hairs that move the mucus out. It is the one factor that measurably lengthens how long bronchitis lasts.
Shortness of breath at rest, a stabbing pain on breathing in, a very fast pulse or confusion speak for pneumonia. That is not a question of patience.
Anyone coughing for weeks three times a year with wheezing rarely has bad luck three times but often an oversensitive bronchial lining. A lung function test settles that once.
A bowl of hot, not boiling water, a towel over the head, breathe calmly for 10 minutes, two to three times a day. A warm shower with the door closed does the same.
Hang a damp cloth over a chair back or set out a shallow bowl of water, keep the room on the cool side.
Let a teaspoon of honey dissolve slowly in the mouth, especially before bed with a cough; do not drink afterwards.
Acute bronchitis is almost always viral. A cough suppressant can save a night and at the same time slows the clearing; expectorants do not shorten the course. The cough lasts two to three weeks on average — that is the real information, not the prescription.
The cough of acute bronchitis lasts on average three weeks, and four weeks or more in a quarter of people — that is the normal course and not a sign that an antibiotic is missing. More than ninety out of a hundred cases are viral. In comparisons an antibiotic shortened the cough by less than half a day. Coloured sputum says nothing about bacteria; the colour comes from the body’s own defence cells.
Chop an onion small and warm it briefly to hand temperature — in a dry pan or over steam, not fried.
Dry and barking first, later productive. The irritation threshold stays low — cold air, laughing or a deep breath set off bouts.
From the coughing itself, not from the heart. It hurts centrally, not to the side and not on deep breathing at rest.
Clear, whitish, yellow, greenish — that sequence belongs to the normal clean-up and is no criterion for an antibiotic.
From the swollen lining. If it lasts or returns with every infection, asthma is a serious possibility.
The second peak after an improvement is one of the few genuinely useful signs of a bacterial complication. It belongs assessed by a doctor.
In adults whooping cough often shows only as weeks of paroxysmal coughing without the typical sound. With a cough beyond three to four weeks it belongs in the considerations.
With acute bronchitis and no asthma cortisone shows no benefit — the cough lasts two to three weeks with or without it. That is one of the most common unnecessary prescriptions of all.
If cortisone is given after all, the sugar rises markedly for days with diabetes — even with a short course. Anyone with both measures more often that week.
Loosens mucus, soothes.
Inhaling eucalyptus loosens thick mucus — keep it away from children’s faces.
Traditionally used for cough; because of the pyrrolizidine alkaloids only briefly and in tested quality today.