respiratory illness : A Common Problem

2008-05-26 15:02:55

( Pharmeceutical-Medical )



There are many types of critical illness – including kidney illness and respiratory illness. Do you suffer from respiratory illness? What exactly is respiratory illness.

Respiratory illness is a general term used for respiratory system illness. This broad term refers to diseases of:
- the pleural cavity
- the lungs
- the trachea
- the bronchial tubes
- the upper respiratory tract
- the breathing nerves and muscles.

Respiratory illness can be mild (like the common cold) or life-threatening (bacterial pneumonia). Both ends of the scale are common resulting not only in illness but also death.

Adults on average have 2-4 colds every year. Children can have 6-10. In a certain country the statistics for chronic lung disease sufferers are 1 in 7. The most common of these are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as asthma.

Respiratory illness is the cause of 10% of all hospitalization and more than 16% of deaths in a certain country.

Pulmonology is the study of respiratory illness. A respiratory disease specialist is known as a pulmonologist or respiratory medicine specialist or a thoracic medicine specialist.

What are the symptoms of respiratory disease?
- shortness of breath while exercising, or in certain cases, even while resting
- coughing that may or may not produce sputum
- chest pain
- coughing blood
- somnolence
- weight loss
- loss of appetite
- noisy breathing
- cyanosis.

Diagnostic Tests
It is possible to investigate respiratory illness with a number of tests
- pulmonary function test
- chest x-ray
- bronchoscopy
- computed tomography scan
- perfusion scan
- biopsy
- micro-organism culture.

How should respiratory illness be treated?
This depends on what disease is being treated, how severe the disease is, as well as the individual patient.

Your lifestyle is an important factor. Healthy nutrition and regular exercise can prevent and treat this illness.

It can also be prevented by vaccination.

Medication in an inhaled form is also used as a cure.

Other cures are:
- oxygen
- physiotherapy
- radiotherapy
- mechanical ventilation
- surgery.


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