by Barbara Kasey Smith

Created on: September 08, 2009

Can medicine treat chronic bronchitis? Acute bronchitis can be caused by the same viruses causing colds. It comes on with a person having a sore throat, sinus infection or a runny nose and it then spreads into your airways and into your bronchial. As this flows into the bronchial which is made up of various tubes which carries the air into your lungs these tubes become infected and they swell and then they form a thick fluid (mucus) inside the tube. This causes you to have a wheezing in the chest and it's harder for you to breathe and you may start coughing up a thick mucus.

In most cases, chronic bronchitis will go away by itself after a period of time, and if you treat your body properly by drinking plenty of fluids and get the proper amount of rest, it will also enhance your body to heal quicker. It's also wise to increase the humidity in your environment, especially in your bedroom, this will help your breathing.

Since bronchitis is caused by viruses, antibiotics (medicine killing bacteria) usually does not help a person to get well. Doctors will normally prescribe medicines that they treat asthma with. By using these type medicines, they will help to open the bronchial tubes and clear out the mucus. This will usually be in the form of an inhaler and the reason for this is because the inhaler will spray the medicine directly into the bronchial tubes. An Allergy and Pulmonary Associates doctor will probably be the one to decide on this method of treatment or the treatment which will be right for you.

Chronic bronchitis is a type of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Since the inflamed bronchi produces a lot of mucus, this can lead to difficulty in inhaling and exhaling the air throughout the lungs and it can lead to bouts of coughing and wheezing. Cigarette smoking is one of the most common causes of chronic bronchitis. It is also caused by breathing fumes and dust into the lungs over a period of time and this could also cause chronic bronchitis.

Proper medical treatment will help you with your symptoms, but chronic bronchitis is known to be a long-term condition which keeps coming back or it never really does go away.

Medicine can treat chronic bronchitis. Your doctor (Allergy and Pulmonary ) can prescribe a medicine called a bronchodilator which will treat your chronic bronchitis. This form of medicine is known to dilate or open, the airways in your lungs and allow you to breathe better. It is an inhaler (which the person breathes in) rather than in a pill form. This inhaler gets the medicine into the appropriate areas of the lungs. It must be used, as directed, in order for a person to get the most from the medicine. Another medicine a doctor may prescribe is theophylline which is a pill form. If none of these medicines work, your doctor may prescribe steroids which can be taken either with an inhaler or in the form of a pill.

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