Bronchitis is an inflammation of the lining of your bronchial tubes. These tubes carry air to and from your lungs. People who have bronchitis often cough up thickened mucus, which can be discolored. Bronchitis may start suddenly and be short term (acute) or start gradually and become long term (chronic).
Acute bronchitis, which often develops from a cold or other respiratory infection, is very common. Also called a chest cold, acute bronchitis usually improves within a week to 10 days without lasting effects, although the cough may linger for weeks.
Chronic bronchitis, a more serious condition, is a constant irritation or inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes, often due to smoking. If you have repeated bouts of bronchitis, you may have chronic bronchitis, which requires medical attention. Chronic bronchitis is one of the conditions included in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
While these symptoms usually improve in about a week, you may have a nagging cough that lingers for several weeks.
Chronic bronchitis is typically defined as a productive cough that lasts at least three months, with bouts that recur for at least two consecutive years. If you have chronic bronchitis, you’re likely to have periods when your cough or other symptoms worsen. It’s also possible to have an acute infection on top of chronic bronchitis.
Contact your doctor or clinic for advice if your cough:
Before you go in, your doctor or clinic can give you guidance on how to prepare for your appointment.
CPI (How to Host a Holiday Party Without Compromising Safety | CPI Security®)
Allstate’s latest Holiday Home Hazards poll found that a vast majority—91% of Americans—agree they can reduce risks associated with fires, accidents and theft during the holiday season through their own attention and action. More than half of those surveyed also guessed correctly that fire and theft risks are higher during the holiday season, indicating that they are aware of the increased risks and the need for vigilance this time of year.
And yet, 62% say that they are not paying any more attention to these risks.
Whether hosting or attending a holiday party, Americans should be vigilant in protecting themselves—or their friends—against some ugly holiday accidents.
Hard to believe but during the holiday season, 17% of Americans say they’ve experienced a stolen or missing valuable when attending a holiday party.
Hosts should also be diligent about cross-contamination and food poisoning risks when serving food to their guests. While hosts may spend hours preparing a delicious holiday meal, it can quickly be ruined if the food becomes spoiled. Staying aware of the temperatures of the foods and dips at a holiday buffet spread, washing foods properly, and making sure that cross-contamination does not occur during food preparations can help make the holiday party happy and healthy this year.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly—safely! While hosting a holiday party comes with making the home festive, taking the proper precautions while doing so can help hosts avoid costly and dangerous outcomes. Unchecked smoke detectors can cause people to miss important alarms when a fire breaks out in a home, quickly turning a holiday party into a holiday disaster. Before the holiday coming up, Allstate recommends installing new batteries in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors (with fire extinguishers and not expired).
Allstate recommends that shoppers don’t advertise their shopping trips or gift purchases on social media. Whether it is checking into a store or using a geo-location services, travel plan updates, or even uploading photos while at a holiday party, people who publicize their whereabouts and activities on social media can unknowingly give today’s “digital thieves” insights into the contents of your trunk, the times you’re away from home and the gifts hidden in your closet.
No matter how good the deals are that consumers find this holiday season, avoid publicizing purchases on social media.
Brighten the holidays by making your health and safety a priority. Take steps to keep you and your loved ones safe and healthy—and ready to enjoy the holidays.
Cener for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC (IBD Facts and Stats | IBD | CDC)
(Review in Remember Ulcerative colitis is:
Chron’s Disease can cause other parts of the body to become inflamed (due to chronic inflammatory activity) including the joints, eyes, mouth, and skin. In addition, gallstones and kidney stones may also develop as a result of Crohn’s disease.
Moreover, children with the disease may experience decreased growth or delayed sexual development.
Crohn’s Disease is far more common than a lot of people think, and it can be a serious disease with life-threatening complications if it is not properly treated. The best way to treat Crohn’s disease is to speak with your doctor regarding Crohn’s disease symptoms and diagnosis. The more you know about the issue, the more likely you will be to recognize it in your own body.
Crohn’s disease symptoms can include: Frequent and recurring diarrhea with,rectal bleeding,Unexplained weight loss, Fever, Abdominal pain and cramping, Fatigue and a feeling of low energy, & Reduced appetite.
Crohn’s can affect the entire GI tract — from the mouth to the anus — and can be progressive, so over time, your symptoms could get worse. That’s why it’s important that you have an open and honest conversation about your symptoms, since your doctor will use that information to help determine what treatment plan is best for you.
It might be helpful that you understand the differences between mild, moderate and severe symptoms, since your doctor may ask your similar questions in S/S your having to distinguish it you are in mild to very severe symptoms.
You may have symptoms such as:
You may have symptoms such as:
Persistent symptoms despite appropriate treatment for moderate to severe Crohn’s, and you may also experience:
Once you and your doctor have discussed your symptoms and created a treatment plan, it’s important to follow directions and take your treatment as prescribed. If you ever have any questions or concerns about your treatment, you should contact your doctor before making any changes or adjustments.
Crohn’s disease is unpredictable. Over time, your symptoms may change in severity, or change altogether. You may go through periods of remission—when you have few or no symptoms. Or your symptoms may come on suddenly, without warning.
Crohn’s disease may lead to one or more of the following complications:
There is currently no cure for Crohn’s disease, and there is no single treatment that works for everyone. One goal of medical treatment is to reduce the inflammation that triggers your signs and symptoms. Another goal is to improve long-term prognosis by limiting complications. In the best cases, this may lead not only to symptom relief but also to long-term remission.
Anti-inflammatory drugs are often the first step in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. They include:
These drugs also reduce inflammation, but they target your immune system, which produces the substances that cause inflammation. For some people, a combination of these drugs works better than one drug alone.
Immune system suppressors include:
This class of therapies targets proteins made by the immune system. Types of biologics used to treat Crohn’s disease include:
Antibiotics can reduce the amount of drainage from fistulas and abscesses and sometimes heal them in people with Crohn’s disease. Some researchers also think that antibiotics help reduce harmful bacteria that may be causing inflammation in the intestine. Frequently prescribed antibiotics include ciprofloxacin (Cipro) and metronidazole (Flagyl).
In addition to controlling inflammation, some medications may help relieve your signs and symptoms. But always talk to your doctor before taking any nonprescription medications. Depending on the severity of your Crohn’s disease, your doctor may recommend one or more of the following:
If diet and lifestyle changes, drug therapy, or other treatments don’t relieve your signs and symptoms, your doctor may recommend surgery. Nearly half of those with Crohn’s disease will require at least one surgery. However, surgery does not cure Crohn’s disease.
During surgery, your surgeon removes a damaged portion of your digestive tract and then reconnects the healthy sections. Surgery may also be used to close fistulas and drain abscesses.
The benefits of surgery for Crohn’s disease are usually temporary. The disease often recurs, frequently near the reconnected tissue. The best approach is to follow surgery with medication to minimize the risk of recurrence.
“Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are both inflammatory bowel diseases with many similarities. Nevertheless, there are some key differences between the two conditions that affect how they are managed. Both Crohn’s diseases and ulcerative colitis cause digestive distress and inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. However, unlike Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis is linked to a response of the immune system.
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It belongs to a group of conditions known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
Crohn’s disease most often affects the end of the small intestine and the beginning of the colon, but it may also affect any part of the GI tract from the mouth to the anus.”
Medical News Today (Crohn’s disease versus ulcerative colitis: What is the difference? medicalnewstoday.com)
You’ve had stomach cramps for weeks, you’re exhausted and losing weight, and you keep having to run to the bathroom. What’s going on?
The differences between both:
1.) The area of the intestines it effects:
Ulcerative colitis affects only the inner lining of the colon, also called the large intestine. But in Crohn’s disease, inflammation can appear anywhere in the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus. And it generally affects all the layers of the bowel walls, not just the inner lining.
By the way, if you hear some people just say “colitis ,” that’s not the same thing. It means inflammation of the colon. With “ulcerative colitis,” you have sores (ulcers) in the lining of your colon, as well as inflammation there.
2.) Where the inflammation is.
People with Crohn’s disease often have healthy areas in between inflamed spots. But with UC, the affected area isn’t interrupted.
Similar Features of Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are:
Colitis refers to inflammation of the inner lining of the colon. There are numerous causes of colitis including infection, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis), ischemic colitis, allergic reactions, and microscopic colitis.
All colitis means in medical terminology is Col=colon with itis=swelling so put together colitis=inflammed colon. Now there are different causes for inflammed colon, one being Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)and don’t mix IBD with IBS.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term used to describe disorders that involve chronic inflammation of your digestive tract. Types of IBD include:
Both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease both usually involve severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and weight loss.
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) distinguished by inflammation of the large intestine (rectum and colon). The innermost lining of the large intestine becomes inflamed, and ulcers may form on the surface. UC can also affect:
Ulcerative colitis usually affects only the innermost lining of your large intestine (colon) and rectum. It occurs only through continuous stretches of your colon, unlike Crohn’s disease which occurs in patches anywhere in the digestive tract and often spreads deep into the layers of affected tissues.
UC is like any other disease people may get…they may just get it. You don’t get it from eating something bad, like your friend but eating something bad may exacerbate the symptoms if you eat bad food. Eating bad food will not cause you to get the disease UC.
Ulcerative colitis symptoms can include: Abdominal pain/discomfort, Blood or pus in stool, Fever, Weight loss, Frequent recurring diarrhea. Fatigue, Reduced appetite, and Tenesmus: A sudden and constant feeling that you have to move your bowels.
Mild ulcerative colitis:
Moderate ulcerative colitis:
Severe ulcerative colitis:
Very Severe ulcerative colitis (Fulminant):
When discussing your UC with your doctor, it is important that you have an open and honest conversation about your symptoms, since your doctor will use that information to help decide what treatment plan is appropriate for you.
Ulcerative colitis treatment usually involves either medication therapy or surgery.
Several categories of medications may be effective in treating ulcerative colitis. The type you take will depend on the severity of your condition. The medications that work well for some people may not work for others. It may take time to find a medication that helps you.
In addition, because some medications have serious side effects, you’ll need to weigh the benefits and risks of any treatment.
There are anti-inflammatory medications involved and are often the first step in the treatment of ulcerative colitis and are appropriate for most people with this condition This would include:
These medications also reduce inflammation, but they do so by suppressing the immune system response that starts the process of inflammation. For some people, a combination of these medications works better than one medication alone.
Immunosuppressant medications include:
This class of therapies targets proteins made by the immune system. Types of biologics used to treat ulcerative colitis include:
Surgery can eliminate ulcerative colitis and involves removing your entire colon and rectum (proctocolectomy).
In most cases, this involves a procedure called ileoanal anastomosis (J-pouch) surgery. This procedure eliminates the need to wear a bag to collect stool. Your surgeon constructs a pouch from the end of your small intestine. The pouch is then attached directly to your anus, allowing you to expel waste in the usual way. This surgery may require 2 to 3 steps to complete.
In some cases a pouch is not possible. Instead, surgeons create a permanent opening in your abdomen (ileal stoma) through which stool is passed for collection in an attached bag.
You will need more-frequent screening for colon cancer because of your increased risk. The recommended schedule will depend on the location of your disease and how long you have had it. People with inflammation of the rectum, also known as proctitis, are not at increased risk of colon cancer.
If your disease involves more than your rectum, you will require a surveillance colonoscopy every 1 to 2 years.
Learn about Chron’s Disease tomorrow with what it actually is, the symptoms, the symptoms based on the various intensities, with who is more prone to it with in what percentage!
CDC states the following:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/coldflu.html)
FLU FACTS:
-Both colds and flu usually last the same seven to 10 days, but flu can go three to four weeks; the flu virus may not still be there, but you have symptoms long after it has left. Allergy can last weeks or months. The CDC states regarding the rise of the flu since the past 40 years from the date provided in this sentence with updating this article from Sept 20, 2022 the following: “During this 40-year period, flu activity most often peaked in February (17 seasons), followed by December (7 seasons), January (6 seasons) and March (6 seasons).”
-The winter flu epidemic will be coming around us again and in a given locality it reaches its peak in 2 to 3 weeks and lasts 5 to 6 weeks. Then is disappears as quickly as it arrived. The reason for this is not completely clear. The usual pattern is for a rise in the incidence of flu in children, which precedes an increase in the adult population. Know this it repeats again certain seasons as listed above by the CDC.
-The flu virus can lead to serious complications, including bronchitis, viral or bacterial pneumonia and even death in elderly and chronically ill patients. Twenty thousand or more people die of the flu in the America each year. Know this that the frequency of human contact across the world and the highly infectious nature of the virus make this explanation difficult to accept. Moreover there is no evidence of persistent or latent infection with influenza viruses. In any case, this idea is not really very difficult from the notion that the virus circulates at a low level throughout the year and seizes its opportunity to cause an outbreak when conditions allow.
-Even harder to explain is why the flu disappears from a community when there are still a large number of people susceptible to infection. Than even harder than that is why flu is a winter disease, which is not fully understood or known. However, flu is spread largely by droplet (aerosol) infection from individuals with high viral level in their nasal and throat secretions, sneezing, and coughing on anyone close at hand. The aerosol droplets of the right size (thought to be about 1.5 micrometers in diameter) remain airborne and are breathed into the nose or lungs of the next victim.
-Situations in which people are crowded together are more commonly in cold or wet weather and so perhaps this contributes to spreading the flu at these times. It is interesting that in equatorial countries, flu occurs throughout the year, but is highest in the monsoon or rainy season. Enough about facts but onto logical thinking for when we or someone we know has it and what questions we might be asking ourselves.
Are the treatments for these illnesses the cold or the flu different?
For any of these things, if it affects the nose or sinus, just rinsing with saline that gets the mucus and virus out is a first-line defense. It’s not the most pleasant thing to do, but it works very well.
There are classes of medicines that can help the flu — Tamiflu and Relenza — antivirals that block viruses’ ability to reproduce and shorten the length and severity of the illness. But they have to be taken within 48 hours or the cat is proverbially out of the bag [because by then] the virus has done the most of its reproduction.
For a cold or flu, rest and use decongestants and antihistamines, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, chicken soup and fluids. Zinc supposedly helps the body’s natural defenses work to their natural capacity and decrease the severity and length of a cold. Cells need zinc as a catalyst in their protective processes, so if you supply them with zinc, it helps them work more efficiently.
You should also withhold iron supplements. Viruses use iron as part of their reproductive cycle, so depriving them of it blocks their dissemination. The majority of these infections are not bacterial and do not require [nor will they respond to] antibiotics. My rule of thumb is that a viral infection should go away in seven to 10 days. If symptoms persist after that, you’d consider if it’s bacteria like Strep or Haemophilus. Those bacteria cause illnesses that are longer lasting and need antibiotics for ranging 3 to 14 days, depending on the med used.
Is that treatment approach the same for kids versus adults? In general, the same rules apply: Most children will have six to eight colds a year in their first three years of life, and most are viral. Adults have 3 or more a year. It’s very easy to test for strep and for that you should have a [positive] culture [before treating with antibiotics]. The principle behind that is knowing the organism the doctor will know what antibiotic to use to fight off the bacterial infection and you won’t build up antibodies from the antibiotic that you didn’t need in the first place if you are given the wrong antibiotic in the beginning.
Are there strategies for avoiding cold and flu different? Avoidance is very similar for both: Strict hand washing, not sharing drinking cups or utensils, and avoiding direct contact with people who are sneezing. Their transmission is similar. As long as someone has a fever, they have the possibility to transmit infection. After they’ve had no fever for 24 hours, they’re not infectious anymore.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that just about everyone get the flu shot: kids 6 months to 19 years of age, pregnant women, people 50 and up, and people of any age with compromised immune systems. Is the shot beneficial to anyone who gets it? Unless you have a contraindication, there’s no reason not to get it=PREVENTION. Contraindications include egg allergy (because the vaccine is grown from egg products), any vaccines within a last week or two, and active illness at the time of your vaccine.
The best to do is PREVENTION so you can avoid the cold or flu in its active phase or post phase, so doing the following will help prevent it:
Get vaccinated yearly if your a candidate and live a healthy lifestyle overall=Good dieting, living good healthy habits and maintaining exercise with rest daily or 2 to 3 times a week including get a vaccine yearly for the flu with maintaining good clean anti-infection habits like as simply as washing the hands as directed above.
****Recommended is to check with your MD on any changes with diet or exercise especially if diagnosed already with disease or and on medications especially; for your safety.****
References on The FLU and The COLD:
1-Wikipedia “the free encyclopedia” 2013 website under the topic Influenza.
2-Kimberly Clark Professional website under the influenza.
3-Web MD under “COLD, FLU, COUGH CENTER” “Flu or cold symptoms?” Reviewed by Laura J. Martin MD November 01, 2011
4-2013 Novartis Consumer Health Inc. Triaminic “Fend off the Flu”
5-Scientific American “Why do we get the flu most often in the winter? Are viruses virulent in cold weather? December 15, 1997
KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!