Knowing the Difference of Asthma and Bronchitis

Bronchitis has some similar symptoms with other lung problems such as asthma. If you don't recognize it accurately you might end up giving the wrong home treatment to your child or even yourself.

When you are out if breath, have a hard time breathing or coughing a lot the first thing you would do is to try out whatever home remedies that you know. The question is, is it the right remedy?

You might think you are experiencing asthma so you may just depend on your inhaler. What you don't know is that you might already be suffering from acute bronchitis and need some cough syrup or other medicine for the relief of your symptoms.

Bronchitis is an inflammation of the air passages that leads to your lungs from your throat. It can either be acute or chronic. These passages are called bronchi or bronchioles.

When these structures are inflamed there is heavy formation of phlegm on the bronchial tubes and air passage is restricted. This means the lungs give out and receive lass air than it should.

Acute bronchitis normally results from a flu or viral infections and is short term. Initial stage is seen as having flu like symptoms such as sore throat, runny nose with only mild fever. Cough is observed after a couple of days.

Asthma however do not present with flu like symptoms at the onset of the illness. Both are observed with wheezing sounds except that it is much worse in an asthma attack. Spasm in the air passages are also noted more in people with asthma.

With bronchitis the chief complaint is regularly wet coughing. Asthma on the other hand is seen with dry cough and not as severe as that of bronchitis. It chief complaint would be wheezing and difficulty breathing.

With an acute bronchitis, symptoms seen for a short period, 10 days or so. Asthma is longer and it is recurrent. Bronchitis do respond to antibiotics unless it is viral while an inhaler is all it takes for an asthma attack.

Bronchitis can be caused by a bacterial or a viral infection. Chronic bronchitis though is brought about by smoking, environmental factors. If it is chronic it is unlikely to be contagious. The acute ones can spread though.

Knowing which illness you have is important. The two may be similar in some form but may require different treatment. Both exhibit inflammation of the airways so diagnosing it accurately is hard.

When not sure the best thing to do is go to your physician. Make sure you are giving the correct symptoms and do not confuse things for an accurate diagnosis.

While bronchitis has two forms, acute and chronic, both are characterized by severe coughing. Asthma on the other hand is by difficulty in breathing and excessive wheezing sound during breathing.

Knowing all these differences can help you give initial treatment to yourself or to your child.