When you have chronic bronchitis it is important to do some lifestyle changes and keep on with your present care and treatment to control your symptoms and better manage your condition.
Lifestyle Changes
If you have bronchitis and you smoke, the most practical thing you can do for your health is to quit smoking, next, talk to your physician about products and programs that can enable you to truly quit since smoking is a habit that is truly difficult to let go.
You also need to avoid factors and substances that irritate your lungs. These can include air pollution, vapors, fumes, dust, and secondhand smoke. Healthy lungs can be quite resilient to pathogen infections that can lead to bronchitis.
In order to lessen the likelihood for bacterial or viral infection, wash your hands frequently. Avoid as much as possible people who cough or sneeze as they may have the flu or colds which can infect you. If you begin to notice yourself showing symptoms or signs of the flu or cold, see your doctor as soon as possible.
Be regularly physically active and stick to a nutritious and healthy diet. A healthy diet can consist of low-fat or fat-free milk and milk products, fish, poultry, lean meats as well as a range of whole grains, vegetables and fruits and a diet low in added sugar, sodium, cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fat as well.
Ongoing Care
Visiting your doctor regularly and taking all your medicines as ordered is one way of properly managing your symptoms. You can ask your doctor if getting an annual pneumonia vaccine and flu shot is recommended for your condition.
One type of treatment you can benefit from if you suffer from chronic bronchitis is pulmonary rehabilitation or PR. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary program that strives to better the life of people with chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis.
Chronic bronchitis patient often have rapid breathing. A breathing technique termed pursed-lip breathing helps to lower the rate of the patient’s breathing and aids in prolonging the opening of his airways. The patient then is able to take in more air and exhales it more easily as well. This technique is useful for bronchitis patients as it gives them the initiative to become physically active.
In doing pursed-lip breathing, you take in air via your nostrils. Then you exhale slowly via slightly pursed lips which is similar to blowing a candle out. Then breathe out slowly about twice or thrice longer than your inhaling time.
Dominic Sembello is a licensed and board certified acupuncturist and the clinical director of Health Source Acupuncture in Linwood, NJ.