Bronchitis: Why We (Mostly) Don’t Use Antibiotics
Between 90% and 95% of bronchitis is brought to us by the same viruses that give us the common cold. Someone sneezes, and you inhale the virus or touch the hand of someone who has it and within a few days you end up developing upper respiratory symtoms of sore throat, cough, headache, maybe some aches and pains.
Just when you thought you were getting better, the cold settles into your chest and you start coughing up excess yellow/brown mucus. You may also notice that your chest feels tight or you sound wheezy. Your cold has just turned into bronchitis!
What is Bronchitis?
Bronchitis is an inflammation of the large airways that lead into the lungs. In otherwise young, healthy people, the infection usually clears up in 7 to 10 days but the cough generally lingers for several weeks. Because the infection is caused by a virus, antibiotics won’t clear up the infection (remember – antibiotics only clear up bacterial infections).
Smoking and Bronchitis
Smokers are at greater risk for developing chronic bronchitis because of the constant exposure to the smoke. Our bodies try to protect the main airways from this constant irritant by producing excess mucus but this excess mucus production will eventually coat the cilia (fine, tiny hairs) that line the airway. The purpose of cilia is to collect the dust and debris that we inhale and through a fanning motion, move the debris up and out of the airways for us to eventually cough up or swallow.
Chronic bronchitis (symptoms that last more than 3 months) develops because there is excessive mucus production that permanantely damages the cilia. The debris becomes trapped in the airways and the person must cough to get rid of the excess mucus build-up. This leads to the junky cough that we call a “smoker’s cough”. When you hear that, you know that there has been damage to the main airways.
Who Gets Antibiotics
When a person with chronic bronchitis gets a cold, their respiratory system is already severely compromised – their cold can quickly turn into something more severe. In these situations, their provider may put them on an antibiotic to help prevent a bacterial infection from taking hold.
That’s why antibiotics should not be used in treating bronchitis in otherwise healthy people.
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