Peppermint Eucalyptus And Fenugreek Tea
Many warm herbal teas can help soothe a scratchy throat, but herbs may be more beneficial.
A 2011 study found that herbs, including peppermint and eucalyptus, had a soothing effect on the throats of people with upper respiratory tract infections. These herbs may help break up mucus and ease the pain and inflammation caused by pneumonia.
A review from 2018 notes that fenugreek seeds might help break down mucus. A tea made from ground fenugreek seeds may therefore ease a persistent cough.
Eucalyptus and tea tree oils may also help relieve coughs. People can use these in a diffuser. However, they should try limiting their exposure at first, to ensure that the use of oils does not worsen their symptoms.
Can You Catch Pneumonia More Than Once
Yes. Pneumonia is caused by many different microbes, and so getting it once does not protect you from getting it again. If you get pneumonia more than once you may need to have more investigations to understand why this has happened. It could be due to a problem in your chest or your immune system, and you may be referred to a specialist.
What Are The Signs Of Double Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an infection of one or both sides of the lungs that causes the air sacs to fill up with fluid or pus, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute . Pneumonia can be caused by a bacteria, virus, or fungus. Symptoms can vary, but may include the following:
- Cough
- Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
- Fatigue
You can also develop complications of pneumonia, like septic shock, lung abscesses, renal failure, and respiratory failure, per the NHLBI.
Double pneumonia isnt an official medical term, but it usually refers to having pneumonia in both lungs, says Richard Watkins, M.D., an infectious disease physician and professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University.
It isnt necessarily more or less common than pneumonia that involves one lung, but it usually depends on the type of pneumonia a person has. Bacterial pneumonia more commonly involves one lung and viral often is a diffuse pattern in both lungs, Dr. Watkins says. X-rays and CT scans in patients with COVID-19 usually show both lungs are involved.
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How Can I Prevent Viral Pneumonia
- Prevent the spread of germs. Wash your hands often with soap and water. Use gel hand cleanser when there is no soap and water available. Do not touch your eyes, nose, or mouth unless you have washed your hands first. Cover your mouth when you cough. Cough into a tissue or your shirtsleeve so you do not spread germs from your hands. If you are sick, stay away from others as much as possible.
- Ask about vaccines. You may need a vaccine to help prevent pneumonia. Get an influenza vaccine every year as soon as it becomes available.
Three Factors In Coronavirus Lung Damage
Galiatsatos notes three factors that affect the lung damage risk in COVID-19 infections and how likely the person is to recover and regain lung function:
Disease severity. The first is the severity of the coronavirus infection itself whether the person has a mild case, or a severe one, Galiatsatos says. Milder cases are less likely to cause lasting scars in the lung tissue.
Health conditions. Galiatsatos says, The second is whether there are existing health problems, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart disease that can raise the risk for severe disease. Older people are also more vulnerable for a severe case of COVID-19. Their lung tissues may be less elastic, and they may have weakened immunity because of advanced age.
Treatment. Treatment is the third factor, he says. A patients recovery and long-term lung health is going to depend on what kind of care they get, and how quickly. Timely support in the hospital for severely ill patients can minimize lung damage.
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Do You Have Pneumonia Symptoms
Find a family medicine or primary care doctor near you.
Another essential piece of the puzzle is determining if the infection may have been picked up from a hospital or other health-care facility like a nursing home. Pathogens that live in these places have a greater chance of being antibiotic resistant and require different treatment considerations.
For most people, especially those without other serious medical conditions, a simple course of antibiotics along with rest and fluids will do, and theyll be back on their feet in no time.
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What I Learned During 10 Days Of Treating Covid Pneumonia
I have been practicing emergency medicine for 30 years. In 1994, I invented an imaging system for teaching intubation, the procedure of inserting breathing tubes. This led me to perform research into this procedure, and subsequently teach airway procedure courses to physicians worldwide for the last two decades.
So at the end of March, as a crush of COVID-19 patients began overwhelming hospitals in New York City, I volunteered to spend 10 days at Bellevue, helping at the hospital where I trained. Over those days, I realized that we are not detecting the deadly pneumonia the virus causes early enough and that we could be doing more to keep patients off ventilators and alive.
On the long drive to New York from my home in New Hampshire, I called my friend Nick Caputo, an emergency physician in the Bronx, who was already in the thick of it. I wanted to know what I was facing, how to stay safe and about his insights into airway management with this disease. Rich, he said, its like nothing Ive ever seen before.
He was right. Pneumonia caused by the coronavirus has had a stunning impact on the citys hospital system. Normally an ER has a mix of patients with conditions ranging from the serious, such as heart attacks, strokes and traumatic injuries, to the non-life-threatening, such as minor lacerations, intoxication, orthopedic injuries and migraine headaches.
Its time to get ahead of this virus instead of chasing it.
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How Is Double Pneumonia Treated
Overall, treatment depends on the type of pneumonia you have and how serious your infection is. If you have bacterial pneumonia, youll usually be given antibiotics. In the case of viral pneumonia, your doctor may give you an antiviral, while anti-fungals are used for pneumonia cased by a fungus.
In the case of pneumonia caused by COVID-19 specifically, doctors are usually very aggressive at treating it, Dr. Casciari says. That may mean giving a patient the steroid dexamethasone or the antiviral remdesivirif indicated, he says. If the condition worsens, a patient may eventually need to be put on a ventilator. At the end of the day, you can live on one lung, he says. When both lungs are affected, its intense.
Dr. Panettieri adds that for viral pneumonia and COVID pneumonia, its really about supportive caremaking sure the patient has enough fluids, giving them oxygen if theyre low, and having them do bed rest.
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Apply A Lukewarm Compress Or Take A Lukewarm Bath
Submerging your body in a lukewarm bath might help you bring down your body temperature.
You can also use a lukewarm compress to help cool your body from the outside inward if a bath is not convenient. Although it may be tempting to use a cold compress, the sudden temperature shift can cause chills. A lukewarm compress provides a more gradual, comfortable temperature change.
Chills may come on before or during a fever. They typically subside after your fever breaks. This may last up to a week, depending on when you begin treatment for pneumonia.
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What’s The Link Between Covid
A quick refresher first: COVID-19 is a serious respiratory illness caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. It can lead to a range of intense symptoms, including a cough, fever, trouble breathing, and loss of taste or smell, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Pneumonia is an infection of the tiny air sacs in the lungs that can cause mild to severe illness in people, the CDC says.
Some patients with COVID-19 develop pneumoniain fact, the World Health Organization first called the virus -infected pneumonia , before shortening the name to COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was also first identified in Wuhan, China due to cases of “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” or unknown cause, the WHO reported in January 2020.
It’s not uncommon to develop pneumonia as the result of any virus, Raymond Casciari, MD, a pulmonologist at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California, tells Health. In the case of COVID-19, the virus can damage your alveoli and cause fluid to build in your lungs as your body fights the infection, he explains. That can also lead to the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome , which is a serious form of respiratory failure that makes the alveoli fill with fluid. “The immune system starts attacking the lung itself, which results in ARDS,” Dr. Casciari says.
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What Are The Complications Of Pneumonia
Most people with pneumonia respond well to treatment, but pneumonia can be very serious and even deadly.
You are more likely to have complications if you are an older adult, a very young child, have a weakened immune system, or have a serious medical problem like diabetes or cirrhosis. Complications may include:
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Acute respiratory distress syndrome . This is a severe form of respiratory failure.
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Lung abscesses. These are pockets of pus that form inside or around the lung. They may need to be drained with surgery
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Respiratory failure. This requires the use of a breathing machine or ventilator.
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This is when the infection gets into the blood. It may lead to organ failure.
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Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
As COVID-19 pneumonia progresses, more of the air sacs become filled with fluid leaking from the tiny blood vessels in the lungs. Eventually, shortness of breath sets in, and can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome , a form of lung failure. Patients with ARDS are often unable to breath on their own and may require ventilator support to help circulate oxygen in the body.
Whether it occurs at home or at the hospital, ARDS can be fatal. People who survive ARDS and recover from COVID-19 may have lasting pulmonary scarring.
What Causes Pneumonia
Many kinds of bacteria and viruses can cause pneumonia.
The most common type of pneumonia is community-acquired pneumonia, which is when pneumonia affects somebody who is not already in hospital. The most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia is a bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae but there are many other causes. Community-acquired pneumonia is much less contagious than flu or a cold, because most peoples immune systems can kill the bacteria that causes it before they can cause an infection. Most people with community-acquired pneumonia are unlikely to give the disease to another person.
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How Long Does It Last
It takes a certain amount of time to start to feel sick after getting exposed to a germ. This length of time is called the incubation period, and it depends on many things, especially which bug is causing the illness.
With influenza pneumonia, for example, someone may become sick as soon as 12 hours or as long as 3 days after exposure to the flu virus. But with walking pneumonia, a person may not feel it until 2 to 3 weeks after becoming infected.
Most types of pneumonia clear up within a week or two, although a cough can linger for several weeks more. In severe cases, it may take longer to completely recover.
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Pneumonia Treatments And Covid
According to the World Health Organization , bacterial pneumonia should be treated with antibiotics, which are usually prescribed at a health center.
If your symptoms are severe, it is important that you call your healthcare provideror seek immediate helpto get the proper treatment. Severe symptoms include:
- Difficulty breathing
- Bluish color in your lips or fingertips
- A high fever
- Cough with mucus that is severe or worsening
Although COVID-19 is caused by a virus, people with the illness can still develop a superinfection, which is a reinfection or secondary infection caused by bacteria. If this happens, antibiotics will be given to the patient. In order to prevent antibiotic resistance, when antibiotics become useless against bacteria, some researchers have suggested following antimicrobial stewardship principles .
Moreover, because severe cases of pneumonia may require treatment at a hospital, healthcare providers must consider the chance that a patient may acquire coinfections in hospitals. So, to be safe and not add to superinfection among hospitalized patients, antibiotics are warranted.
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Pneumonia: Symptoms Causes And Effective Treatments
Pneumonia starts when a virus, fungus, or bacterium get into one of your lungs. It causes the tiny sacs inside to get inflamed and fill with fluid or pus. If youre healthy and get treated right away, it usually isnt serious. But it can be dangerous for seniors, young kids, and people who have other health problems or weak immune systems.
Focus On Your Breathing
Being more mindful of your breathing can help. Not sure how to do this? Try this exercise, which can be done by lying down or sitting up:
When breathing “properly,” the hand over your stomach should be moving more than the hand over your chest.
Using your abdomen when you are breathing means the diaphragm is doing its job and taking the workload off your lungs
Breathing in and counting for a few seconds, then out for few seconds while focusing on using your abdomen can help reduce some of your breathing difficulties. This breathing technique can also reduce the anxiety that sometimes comes with difficulty breathing.
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What Is Double Pneumonia
This condition simply means that both lungs are affected regardless of the site where the pneumonia has developed. Pneumonia is a medical condition where in a portion of the lung is filled with liquid by products of inflammation. Commonly it is the right lung that is infected. Chances of double pneumonia in the elderly are more due to the weak immune system in the old age. The bacteria streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause.
How Is Pneumonia Treated
When you get a pneumonia diagnosis, your doctor will work with you to develop a treatment plan. Treatment for pneumonia depends on the type of pneumonia you have, how sick you are feeling, your age, and whether you have other health conditions. The goals of treatment are to cure the infection and prevent complications. It is important to follow your treatment plan carefully until you are fully recovered.
Take any medications as prescribed by your doctor. If your pneumonia is caused by bacteria, you will be given an antibiotic. It is important to take all the antibiotic until it is gone, even though you will probably start to feel better in a couple of days. If you stop, you risk having the infection come back, and you increase the chances that the germs will be resistant to treatment in the future.
Typical antibiotics do not work against viruses. If you have viral pneumonia, your doctor may prescribe an antiviral medication to treat it. Sometimes, though, symptom management and rest are all that is needed.
Most people can manage their symptoms such as fever and cough at home by following these steps:
If your pneumonia is so severe that you are treated in the hospital, you may be given intravenous fluids and antibiotics, as well as oxygen therapy, and possibly other breathing treatments.
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Causes And Risk Factors Of Pneumonia
How do you get pneumonia? The majority of the germs that cause infection are spread from person to person through droplets, from coughing or sneezing.
- A weakened immune system due to human immunodeficiency virus or cancer
People who smoke are at higher risk for pneumonia, as are people on immunosuppressive medications, and people who are frequently in close, crowded spaces with others, such as college students and military personnel.
Favorite Orgs That Can Help Fight Pneumonia
Those over age 65 have a higher risk of getting pneumonia than younger adults. They may be especially susceptible to community-acquired pneumonia, spread among large populations of elderly people in settings such as assisted living facilities. This organization, devoted to finding the best products and services for seniors, publishes advice on how older adults should handle prevention and care.
Influenza is a common cause of pneumonia. Several national healthcare organizations and the CDC are collaborating in an effort called United Against the Flu to stress the importance of getting immunized. The groups website supplies resources and details on the vaccination.
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Based On How It Was Acquired
- Aspiration Pneumonia: If you happen to develop pneumonia by inhaling bacteria from foods, drinks or saliva, it is called aspiration pneumonia. This type usually occurs when the infected individual has difficulty in swallowing.
- Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: Individuals using a ventilator can also develop pneumonia.
Now that you are familiar with the types of pneumonia, understanding its causes is a lot easier.