What is pneumonia?
As performed in many medical dictionaries, Pneumonia is an infection caused by certain types of viruses. If you are unlucky to experience bacterial pneumonia you will have to get acquainted with shortness of breath, coughing and other difficulties in breathing.
Pneumonia appears to be a Greek word which means “lungs” and is likely to occur in persons of all ages and races. Children of certain ages are also likely to experience bacterial pneumonia though the methods of treating them are quite different. It should be also mentioned that young children and people of the elder age are at higher risk.
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What Are the Main Causes of Pneumonia?
Pneumonia Signs And Symptoms. Some tips to help you keep safe
Each year, approximately 5-10 million people contract pneumonia. Of these 5-10 million, 1 million wind up with symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization.
Treatment for pneumonia is done with antibiotics, and total recovery time takes approximately 7-10 days. Drinking plenty of fluids, eating a healthy diet, breathing exercises, and following up with your doctor all help to minimize the duration of the infection
Signs and symptoms of pneumonia to watch for:
Mucus Producing Cough – Mucus cough, also known as sputum cough, may have distinct coloring (green or tinted with blood), and is often experienced in cases of pneumonia.
Fever – At the onset, your body attempts to fight the infection through generating additional T-Cells. This additional work the body has to do, in addition to the infection itself, causes your body to overheat/have a fever.
Chills – Chills are most often experienced along with fever as an accompanying side effect of the fever causing you to sweat.
Chest Pain – Chest pain in the wall of the lungs that gets worse when breathing in.
After the first day of antibiotic treatment, the infection is usually reduced to a level that can’t be spread contagiously.
What Are The Causes Of Pneumonia?
Bacteria virus and fungi that collect in the air we breathe are a frequent cause of pneumonia. When large collections of bacteria collect in a living /work space (or any area where extended periods of bacteria/virus/fungi exposure occur), the immune system weakens because of the unhealthy environment. Contracting bacterial pneumonia then becomes a genuine risk and can develop over a course of time.
Contrary to popular belief, pneumonia is often present in the air we breathe, we just don’t get sick from it because our immune system is able to fight it off naturally. A clean living environment, healthy diet, and a lifestyle rich in exercise all help to keep us strong and resistant to disease.
Pneumonia is an opportunistic infection. Meaning, if you have a weakened immune system due to drug therapy, poor living conditions, pre-existing disease, or other reasons, you’ll be more vulnerable to contracting pneumonia.
People get sick from pneumonia the most often not because of a SINGLE contributing factor, but from MULTIPLE factors combining to form an opportunistic environment where infection thrives/multiplies.
Example : A history of bad eating habits, dirty cat litter boxes, dirty floors and walls, moldy brick dust, and a moist basement environment is an example of an environment
good health can’t prosper and infection can take hold.
What Are Some More Pneumonia Risk Factors?
Some Facts About Pneumonia To Help Keep You Safe
- Pneumonia Can Be Deadly – Although with proper medical treatment so widely available, death from pneumonia is rare. But it has been known to happen. People with pre-existing medical conditions should be especially careful to follow their doctors orders precisely, as well as contribute to their own recovery through additional therapy.
- Proper Breastfeeding Can Help Safeguard Your Baby – An infant’s first 6 months is the most crucial time to breastfeed your baby. It’s during this time that a baby needs mother’s milk most to establish the “building blocks” of a healthy imComplications
Bacterial Pneumonia Complications
Bacterial pneumonia is a significantly common disease that can have serious complications if the disease goes untreated. This disease can even lead to death if it’s not treated within the beginning stages. Every single year it’s estimated that over 60,000 die from bacterial pneumonia. It’s hard to believe such a tragic disease could have started from an infection of the lungs.
This infection can actually be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungus, and so many other organisms. Bacterial pneumonia has been known to show more significant damage in the young as well as the elderly. This is often due to the weaker immune system within these patients. This can lead to serious complications that if it goes untreated it could eventually lead to hospitalization or death.
Bacterial infections can come from so many different sources including touching contaminated objects, inhaling air that is carrying bacteria in droplets. Though this disease is a harsh reality. Before it starts, in most cases the lungs will fight the infection! Be sure to be extra careful after being contaminated with the flu or common cold. This will give the pneumonia more of a chance to thrive within the weaker immune system.
There are so many complications that can occur when infected by this disastrous disease. One of the many complications that could occur is known as blood bactermia. Blood bactermia can spread to other organs making the infection far more serious and deadly. Another complication that can have a deadly outcome is fluid build up in the lungs. This fluid can become infected and would need removal right away before more serious complications took place.
Prevention of pneumonia
If the complications do not take place during the stay of your newly contracted disease, a remedy is at hand. This remedy includes antibiotic medicines such as penicillin. Being sure to follow the directions the doctor gave you and following them through to the end will give you the power to fight off the disease and keep it away! This is really the goal from the beginning.
Being sure to make appointments for check ups every year will minimize your chance for infection. This is the smart way to go about staying healthy for you and your family. If you ever feel that you have any symptoms, be sure to make a quick trip to your family doctor right away. This will ensure your health and will keep you at a peace of mind.
Bacterial Pneumonia treatment? Where information
Bacterial Pneumonia Treatment
Natural Treatments of Bacterial Pneumonia
Bacterial pneumonia is an illness caused by certain virus. It may occur in men, women, children and people of the elder age. Bacterial pneumonia could be easily transmitted from somebody who already experiences the illness or even easily catch the illness from the improperly cleaned conditioner.
Here we do define the most well-known natural herbs for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.
For instance, the Chinese mushrooms cordyceps are widely used to support the lungs. The treatment is available in a tonic formula. This miraculous formula has been created to help the lungs function in the proper way. Elderberry has antiviral properties and helps reducing bacterial pneumonia symptoms such as coughing or congestion, for example. The usage of the herbs is not possible if a person suffers from anxiety, glaucoma, heart disease, high blood pressure or insomnia.
Many people admit that Eucalyptus has medical properties. Moreover, it may be quite helpful while treating bacterial pneumonia. Here we mention eucalyptus oil as a miraculous means for relieving congestion. In order to gain the desired results you are advised to put a few drops of the oil into a hot bath or just add 6 drops in a cup of boiling water for better results. After that just put a towel over your hand and inhale vapors.
Olive leaf extract is also a good means of supporting the immune system. As a good state of the immune system, it is the first and the most important step to the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.
Improving the immune system
What else can you provide your immune system with?Here we mention certain means of improving the immune system for better results. Fresh juices, soups, quality water are good ways of flushing out the body. Try different herbal teas in order to support the organism. A good rest is an excellent source of a good condition of the immune system.
The more you sleep the better you feel and the fewer illnesses you will possess. Another recommendation any doctor will provide you with is the advice not to take zinc together with citrus fruits or juices. This is due to the fact that citrus fruits will absolutely reduce the effectiveness of the zinc. But be attentive while consuming a lot of fruits because not all of them help you prevent bacterial pneumonia. You’d better ask a good specialist before taking any decisive steps.
Bacterial pneumonia may appear a serious problem for those who are over 60 years old. Antibiotics are not likely to help if a person of this age experiences bacterial pneumonia. On the other hand, a person suffering from bacterial pneumonia is able to strengthen his immune system and to attack the illness directly. When the organism is sick or experiences stress, he makes a step to pneumonia. This is due to the fact that, as many scientists declare, psychological stress may cause bacterial pneumonia and other kinds of disease. So take care of yourself because this is the best prevention of any illness.
Bacterial Pneumonia in the Life of Children and Infants
According to medical dictionaries, bacterial pneumonia is the disease caused by a virus. It is the so-called parenchymal tissue inflammation in the lungs. What is notable, the disease is likely to be experienced by infants and children. When we deal with statistics we notice about 34-40 cases per 1000 children every year.
In order to define if a child experiences pneumonia, he needs to be checked up thoroughly. For this reason, the doctor talks to a child and clarifies the features of his state. In some cases the doctor does a chest x-ray and performs certain laboratory tests. It should be mentioned that the age of the child is one of the most important factors. Here we do speak about the main causes of pneumonia. For instance, pneumonia of newborn babies is usually the result of the transmission.
Shortly speaking, if a mother has bacterial pneumonia, her newborn baby will be also likely to experience the same disease. For this reason we mention Escherichia coli, Streptococcus group B, and Listeria monocytogenes. It should be noted that the child of 3 weeks and 3 months is able to have bacterial pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and viruses. As mentioned above, we observe certain features and causes of bacterial pneumonia according to the age of the child. In comparison with other ages, the children of 4 months and 5 years are likely to come across bacterial pneumonia caused by a virus named respiratory syncytial virus (the so-called RSV).
Still, how is mother able to distinguish certain features of the illness and how will she recognize the signs of bacterial pneumonia? While talking about various kinds of pneumonia we define fever, cyanosis (e.g. bluish, especially on the lips), cough, nose flaring or retracted chest wall. Besides, there does exist an additional voice in breathing. If the child can talk he will be able to complain and to describe the signs he experiences. For example, he may easily differentiate shortness of breath and tells the mother or the doctor about the symptoms.
While the doctor will examine your child you (or the child itself) will have to answer certain important questions. For instance, the doctor may be interested in the age of the child, the immunization status and even the history of lodging in the hospital. In order to choose the appropriate treatment and to define the diagnosis the doctor has to find out everything.
In case there are signs of tachypnea 2-year-old kids are likely to experience bacterial pneumonia. Here it’s really important to define the age of the child in order to outline if he or she really performs tachypnea. The calculation of times per minute in infants must be defined precisely in one minute.
According to the symptoms, we define various types of therapy. In some of the cases an urgent hospitalization is required. In other case, the usage of antibiotics is prescribed. Anyway, before buying any medicines, consult the doctor.
What Should We Do When Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Followed Influenza?
The main cause of the problem of pneumonia
Bacterial Pneumonia Recovery Time
So, you wake up with the worst fever you have ever had. Not one symptom of the bug holds out, instead it’s more like a nightmare because these symptoms all seem to attack at around the same time. Now you know it’s time to go to the hospital and find out that it’s about. It’s even worse than you thought bacterial pneumonia.
The first thought that enters your mind is “how long is this going to take to leave my system?” Well, this actually depends on many different factors that include age, health, immunity, and so much more. The severity of this disease is the biggest factor when it comes to the time it takes to get better. But, isn’t there an exact time frame for each of these factors? Yes, there actually can be an approximate time frame that you can take into consideration.
If you’re a young and healthy patient who seems to be optimistic, you should be. The average time for the disease to dissipate for a young and healthy male is just between one and two weeks. This goes the same for those who find out they have received the disease in the beginning stages. For those who are elderly and for those who are young in age it can often take as many as two to three weeks to see any progress made.
Most infected humans must stay located at the hospital between one and four days. These are all very minimum times when you find out that your cough can last from six all the way to eight weeks! This is a huge time frame to have any annoying trait you just don’t want to deal with. Did you know that there are also some tips to help you reduce the bacterial pneumonia recovery time even quicker?
Knowing that this disease is contagious should keep you from infecting others. Be sure to have treatments of penicillin and erythromycin. These antibiotics need to be taken as the doctors order reads. Any smoking or alcohol abuse can prolong this uncomfortable experience and even cause the symptoms to get more severe. Always be sure to get regular doctors check ups. This will keep you on top of your health and keep you ready for the next day. If you ever feel that you’re coming down with any of the listed symptoms be sure to seek a doctors help immediately.
How to Protect Yourself from Bacterial Pneumonia?
Everyone knows that it is very easy to come in contact with those people who are sick especially these days. There is one case that happened not so long ago in one family. The wife had a condition of chronic low blood platelets. Some time passed and her spleen was removed. It is known that the main function of the spleen in every organism is to help the body to fight with any kind of infection. Since that time the woman was less protected. For that reason the husband decided to opt a vaccine against pneumonia as the vaccination is considered to be also the most effective means from bacterial pneumonia.
Many people are highly recommended to get pneumococcal vaccination. This vaccination is a good method of precluding a particular type of lung infection that is usually produced with the help of Pneumococcus bacterium. In general there are more than 80 different serotypes of pneumococcus bacteria. And the above mentioned vaccination covers 23 of them.
There is no problem for the rest of serotypes as the majority of infections are caused by these 23 types that the vaccine covers. The vaccine is injected into a body in order to help the organism simulate a good work of immune system so that it can create antibodies that will be able to prevent a person from Pneumococcus bacterium. Such method of simulation is called immunization.
Vaccination recommendations
There are certain groups of people who should consider pneumococcal vaccination as a recommended one. They are adults who are more than 65 years old, children between 2 months and 2 years old who have chronic heart or lung disorders, with spleen dysfunction or lack of an important spleen function, with immunosuppressant and metabolic diseases comprising diabetes, those people who are going to have a surgical operation on the removal of the spleen (2 weeks before the planned operation). There are interesting facts that some American Indian populations and Alaskan natives must also be vaccinated. Children up to 5 years old who didn’t receive the vaccination in earlier years should be vaccinated too.
It is not a surprise that many people who belong to a high-risk group do not get the vaccine when needed. Either they don’t know or they do not consider their case serious or perhaps they don’t even suspect that they are in a high-risk group. There are many different reasons. But still they have to understand that they can be hospitalized in case of serious problems and undergo many tests in order to verify the bacterial pneumonia infection.
Many people prefer to take antibiotics that are thought to be effective against pneumococcal bacteria but when the problem becomes life-threatening the vaccine is the only solution that can prevent a patient from fatal consequences.
Pneumonia can be caused by other microbes but not only by pneumococcus bacteria, therefore, the pneumococcal vaccination is not effective in these cases and will not protect from such situations.
Anyway take precautions and get a vaccine that protects against bacterial pneumonia.