Mild Symptoms Of Pneumonia
Very mild cases of pneumonia are sometimes known as walking pneumonia because they dont tend to require extended bed rest, medical treatment or hospitalisation. The usual cause of walking pneumonia is the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
Symptoms of walking pneumonia include a cough, sore throat, headache, mild flu-like symptoms, tiredness and chest pain.
Lung Pain On Left Side
Pain in your left lung will typically result from similar conditions as pain in your right lung.
However, heart conditions such as angina and stroke are more likely to cause chest pain in the left side of your body.
While this pain may not specifically come from your lungs, its crucial to seek medical assistance if you experience severe pains in the left of your chest.
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Taking Care Of Yourself At Home
If you have a bacterial chest infection, you should start to feel better 24 to 48 hours after starting on antibiotics. You may have a cough for days or weeks. For other types of chest infections, the recovery is more gradual. You may feel weak for some time and need a longer period of bed rest.Be guided by your doctor, but general self-care suggestions include:
- Take your medication as directed. Even if you feel better, finish the course of antibiotics.
- Drink plenty of fluids.
- Rest for a few days.
- Prop yourself up on a couple of pillows at night it will make it easier to sleep.
- Stop smoking, at least until you feel better, if you cant give up at this stage.
- Contact your local doctor if you have any concerns or questions.
- Go straight to your local doctor or the nearest hospital emergency department if you have trouble breathing, have a high fever or feel worse.
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Can Pneumonia Cause Back Pain
Pneumonia is an illness that causes the small air sacs in the lungs to fill with fluid. It might affect one or both lungs. The intensity of pneumonia symptoms varies, but patients may have chest, stomach, or back pain while breathing or coughing. These symptoms might be caused by other health problems as well, so it’s important for patients to see their doctors to get proper diagnosis and treatment.
Back pain can be a symptom of many different health problems. Patients should contact their doctors if back pain lasts longer than three months, is severe, or does not go away. Your doctor will perform a complete medical evaluation to determine the source of your pain.
Pneumonia might be the underlying problem that causes back pain. If you are diagnosed with pneumonia, your doctor will likely treat this condition with antibiotics. With proper treatment, most people make a full recovery from pneumonia. However, some people may have long-term effects from this disease. In particular, those who have chronic lung disease or heart problems are at risk for developing more serious complications such as respiratory failure or infection.
It’s important for patients to communicate with their doctors about any symptoms they might have from other problems to ensure proper treatment. Back pain can be a sign of many different illnesses working with your doctor to identify the source of your pain will help lead to its proper treatment.
How To Avoid Getting A Chest Infection
Stop smoking if you smoke. People who smoke have a higher risk of developing serious chest infections. Smoking damages your lungs and weakens your defences against infection.
Cut down on how much alcohol you drink. Excessive and prolonged alcohol misuse can weaken your lungs natural defences against infections. This can make you more vulnerable to chest infections.
Washing your hands especially before eating protects you from many infections including chest infections. Avoid touching your face with your hands.
If you are over 65 or have a serious long-term health condition you should:
- ask your GP about the annual flu vaccination
- ask if you should have the pneumococcal vaccine this helps prevent pneumonia
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Can The Pneumonia Vaccine Prevent Pneumonia
It is not possible to prevent all types of pneumonia, but one can take steps to reduce the chance of contracting the condition by quitting smoking, practicing good hand-washing, and avoiding contact with people who have colds, the flu, or other infections.
A vaccine is available against the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia, Streptococcus pneumoniae . There are two types of vaccine: PPSV23 , a pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine against 23 types of the bacteria, and PCV13 , a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that protects against 13 types of the bacteria. These vaccines may not always prevent pneumococcal pneumonia, but they may prevent serious complications of pneumonia if it does occur.
Avoidance of areas where fungal pathogens are endemic is recommended to prevent fungal pneumonias. There is no antifungal vaccine available however, for some high-risk patients, some doctors have recommended prophylactic antifungal drugs.
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When Should You See A Doctor
If you suspect you have the symptoms of pneumonia, you should seek immediate medical assistance, especially if you have chest pain after pneumonia. You need to understand that pneumonia is a serious illness and can cause serious complications when left untreated for long enough. It can have life-threatening complications in people older than 65 years. Be sure to talk to your doctor if you have the following symptoms:
- Cough with phlegm and high fever
- Shortness of breathing o other breathing difficulties
- Severe chest pain
- Feeling confused, tired and irritated
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Urgent Advice: Get Urgent Medical Attention If:
- you have severe symptoms such as rapid breathing, chest pain or confusion
Pneumonia affects around 8 in 1,000 adults each year. It’s more widespread in autumn and winter.
Pneumonia can affect people of any age. It’s more common and can be more serious in certain groups of people, such as the very young or the elderly. People in these groups may need hospital treatment if they develop pneumonia.
What Is Lung Pain
Lung pain is often felt when you breathe in and out, either on one or both sides of your chest. Technically, the pain isnt coming from inside the lungs, since they have very few pain receptors. Instead, the pain may come from the lining of the lungs, which does have pain receptors.
Pro Tip
People who think they are feeling lung pain are often describing a pain in the chest. This pain can be from any of the structures in the chest that sense pain, including skin, muscle, bone, chest wall lining, lung lining, esophagus , and heart. It is important that you see your doctor to determine what is causing the pain. Dr. Benjamin Ranard
Lung pain can also come from the chest wall or from organs or structures in your chest, such as your heart, esophagus , trachea , or muscles and bones in your chest.
There are many conditions that cause lung or chest pain, ranging from viral infections to fluid around your lungs to blood clots.
Treatments include inhalers, medications such as diuretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and blood thinners and, in some cases, surgery.
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Viral Vs Bacterial Pneumonia Symptoms
Although viral and bacterial pneumonia symptoms can be very similar, there are some key differences between the two. The section below outlines some examples.
- Lungs affected: Bacterial pneumonia tends to affect one particular part, or lobe, of a lung, whereas viral pneumonia typically affects both lungs.
- Symptom onset: The symptoms of bacterial pneumonia can develop either suddenly or gradually, whereas symptoms of viral pneumonia typically develop over several days.
- Symptoms: People with bacterial pneumonia usually experience a higher temperature and a wet cough, whereas people with viral pneumonia
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How Is Acute Bronchitis Treated
Acute bronchitis is usually mild and does not cause complications. The symptoms often resolve on their own and lung function goes back to normal.
In most cases, antibiotics are not needed to treat acute bronchitis. Thats because most of the infections are caused by viruses. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses. If it has progressed to pneumonia, then antibiotics may be necessary.
Treatment is aimed at treating the symptoms, and may include:
- Avoiding exposure to secondhand smoke
- Cough medicine
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your healthcare provider:
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How Is Acute Bronchitis Diagnosed
Healthcare providers can often diagnose acute bronchitis by taking a medical history and doing physical exam. Tests may be done to rule out other diseases, such as pneumonia or asthma. Any of these tests may be used to help confirm a diagnosis:
- Chest X-rays. A test that uses invisible radiation beams to make images of internal tissues, bones, and organs, including the lungs.
- Arterial blood gas. This blood test is used to analyze the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the blood.
- Pulse oximetry. An oximeter is a small machine that measures the amount of oxygen in the blood. To get this measurement, a small sensor is taped or clipped on a finger or toe. When the machine is on, a small red light can be seen in the sensor. The sensor is painless and the red light does not get hot.
- Cultures of nasal discharge and sputum. Testing the sputum you cough up or swab from your nose may be done to find and identify the microorganism causing the infection.
- Pulmonary function tests. These are tests that help to measure the ability of the lungs to move air in and out of the lungs. The tests are usually done with special machines that you breathe into.
Symptoms Of Atypical Pneumonia
Atypical pneumonia is most commonly caused by mycoplasma, chlamydia, or a virus. It usually appears in children and young adults. Symptoms are usually mild and often go undiagnosed and untreated. Legionnaire disease, however, is a severe form of atypical pneumonia that usually strikes adults and seniors.
The disease progresses gradually:
- General flu-like symptoms often occur first. They may include fatigue, fever, weakness, headache, nasal discharge, sore throat, earache, and stomach and intestinal distress.
- Vague pain under and around the breastbone may occur, but the severe chest pain associated with typical bacterial pneumonia is uncommon.
- People may have a severe hacking cough, but it usually does not produce sputum.
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How Is Walking Pneumonia Diagnosed
Walking pneumonia can be diagnosed by a medical practitioner by a combination of a physical exam, questions about the patients symptoms, and review of the patients medical history. It is possible that they will request a chest X-ray in order to differentiate between pneumonia and other respiratory ailments such as acute bronchitis.
Who Is Most At Risk For Getting Pneumonia
People who have an increased risk of pneumonia include:
- People over the age of 65 and infants under age 2. The weakening immune system of older people makes them less able to fight off illnesses. Similarly, the immune system of infants is still developing and not at full-strength, making them more susceptible to infection.
- People with a health-caused weakened immune system. Examples include:
- People who are receiving chemotherapy
- Transplanted organ recipients
- People with autoimmune disease and who are taking medications that suppress the immune system.
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How Is Pneumonia Spread From Person To Person
Pneumonia is spread when droplets of fluid containing the pneumonia bacteria or virus are launched in the air when someone coughs or sneezes and then inhaled by others. You can also get pneumonia from touching an object previously touched by the person with pneumonia or touching a tissue used by the infected person and then touching your mouth or nose.
Gerd /acid Reflux And Heartburn
Heartburn or GERD can be described as a burning sensation in the chest and behind the breastbone. The sensation can move up and down the throat and often is accompanied by a taste of food or a feeling of burning acid in the throat. This often happens after eating, especially if you eat large meals, consume alcohol with them/smoke and lie down too soon after eating.
Many people confuse this sensation with having a heart attack, since this can be uncomfortable and cause pain in the middle of the chest.
GERD is a common kind of chest pain during pregnancy, so if youre pregnant and you feel like your heart hurts, speak with your doctor to see if you have GERD.
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Back Pain From Pneumonia
Back pain is a common symptom of pneumonia. In the last 15 years, I have personally treated thousands of patients hospitalized with pneumonia. Many of them had back pain. I am writing this article based on my personal experience as well as a review of relevant medical journals.
In this article, I will describe:
Does Pneumonia Really Walk And Is Double Pneumonia Just Double Talk
Before answering the above questions, I want the reader and myself to be on the same initial page and agree that the basic subject about to be presented is pneumonia. Pneumonia is a disease of the lung tissue that involves inflammation of the alveoli . Although bacteria and viruses cause the majority of pneumonias, there can be other causes such as fungi, parasites, chemicals, and physical injury to the lung tissue. Pneumonias can result in fluid accumulation in alveoli and produce the typical signs and symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, and often fever and chest pain, especially when coughing.
Pneumonia is not bronchitis , and it’s not pleurisy , although both can produce some symptoms similar to pneumonias. Please note the use of the word “pneumonias” it’s plural and, in my view, has many different words used in both the lay and medical literature to identify subsets of the disease. Unfortunately, this can lead to confusion because there is a considerable amount of imprecision and overlap with these modifiers. We in the medical professions are guilty of developing and then using them I don’t see any evidence that the terminology will improve, so I’ll try at least to indicate what several of the prominent pneumonia modifiers mean and answer the questions asked above in the title.
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Final Thoughts And Key Takeaways
If youre suffering from the flu right now, I urge you to check out these natural flu remedies that can help you recuperate more quickly.
The flu is no joke it can make you miserable. And adding back pain to your list of symptoms can make you feel even worse.
Heres what I want you to take away from this article:
Key takeaway #1: Although you wont find lower back pain listed on most lists of flu symptoms, its actually pretty common.
Key takeaway #2: Several factors can contribute to flu-related back pain. These include inflammatory responses, pulled muscles from coughing and complications such as pneumonia.
Key takeaway #3: People with pre-existing back pain conditions are more likely to have a recurrence if they get the flu.
Key takeaway #4: Mainstream medicines pain relievers and over-the-counter flu medications do little to alleviate back pain, and some have serious side effects.
Key takeaway #5: Topical analgesics with natural ingredients and a far-infrared heating pad are the options I recommend for back pain relief while recovering from the flu.
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How Are Back Spasms Treated
Healthcare providers used to prescribe bed rest for those who deal with back spasms. Such inactivity is no longer recommended. Instead, follow your providerâs instructions about the following:
- Ice/heat: Apply ice or heat to the location of your back spasms. Wrap the ice pack or heating pad in a towel or pillowcase and apply it to your skin for 20 to 30 minutes. Then reapply after 20 to 30 minutes.
- Over-the-counter pain medications: Over-the-counter pain medications, including acetaminophen , naproxen or ibuprofen .
- Muscle relaxants: Your provider may recommend taking a muscle relaxant like cyclobenzaprine, metaxalone or methocarbamol. If you do take them, take them at night and only for 72 hours or less.
- Physical therapy: Your healthcare provider might prescribe physical therapy, where you can learn relaxation techniques and stretches for your back muscles.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that causes cough, fever andtrouble breathing, among other symptoms. Although you may think it is somethingyou could never get, pneumonia is one of the leading causes of hospitalizations inAmerica. Approximately one million American adults seek hospital care everyyear due to pneumonia. Prompt treatment of pneumonia can mean the differencebetween requiring hospitalization or recovering at home.
This FAQ will help you recognize the signs and symptoms of pneumonia,available treatment options and ways to keep yourself and others healthy.