Pneumonia is the disease that commonly described as the infection in one or both of your lungs. The infections in the lungs could be caused by either bacteria, viruses, or even fungi. Pneumonia then causes the inflammation in the alveoli, which then the alveoli will be filled with fluids and make you become harder to breath.
Types and Causes of Pneumonia
Basically, there are many types and causes that can lead you to pneumonia disease, Here are the various types and causes of pneumonia:
- Bacterial Pneumonia: this type of pneumonia can affect people at any age. The most common bacteria that can lead you to pneumonia are Streptococcus pneuomoniae, Chlamydophila pneumonia, and Legionella pneumonia. This bacterial pneumonia can develop on its own or after serious series of flu.
- Viral Pneumonia: the viruses could also lead you to pneumonia disease. In most cases, the respiratory viruses are the viruses that could lead you this disease and usually not serious at all. But, viral pneumonia could be severe for the pregnant women or individual with heart or lung issue.
- Mycoplasma Pneumonia: the mycoplasma organism could also lead you to the pneumonia disease. So, mycoplasma is the smallest agents that can affect people and they have common treatment with the bacterial and viral pneumonia. But, mycoplasma pneumonia usually causes mild or moderate type of pneumonia.
- Other types of pneumonia: there are types of thing that could also lead you to pneumonia disease. Tuberculosis and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia generally will lead you to pneumonia too. Less common things such as inhaling foods, dust, liquids, or gas could also lead you to pneumonia and it can be serious.
There are many conditions that could be the indication that you’re developing the pneumonia disease. Here are the general symptoms that you would get as the sign that you’re having pneumonia disease.
- Fever and shaking chills.
- Wheezing, nausea, and also vomiting.
- Muscle aches
- Chest pain
- Rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, and difficulty in breathing
In addition to that, here are the symptoms that also could occur to you and you need to seek the medical treatment as soon as possible whenever you’re suffering these symptoms:
- Skin with bluish tone.
- Blood in the sputum.,
- High fever
- Confusion
- Labored breathing.
Pneumonia Treatments
So, after you already know all of the causes and symptoms of the pneumonia, you might wonder how to treat pneumonia disease. There are many things that you need to do to treat the pneumonia disease. Here are the various type of treatments that you need to do so that the pneumonia disease would go away from your body.
Treating Pneumonia Based on Daily Habits and Home Remedies
The first type of treatments that you could do to treat the pneumonia disease is based on the home treatments and also based on your daily habits. In the case you have mild or moderate pneumonia, the home remedies and the treatment of pneumonia based on this type could be very useful for you and relieve the symptoms of pneumonia. Here are the treatments of pneumonia based on daily habits and home remedies.
- Drink Plenty of Fluids
The first thing that you need to do and would be very beneficial as the home remedies to against pneumonia disease is drinking plenty of fluids. Whenever you’re having pneumonia disease, you need to make sure that you’re staying hydrate throughout the day. Whenever you’re staying hydrated, that would help to loosen the mucus in your lungs and thus, it would relieve the pain caused by the pneumonia disease. It is recommended that you consume water, warm tea, and clear soup.
- Get an Adequate Time of Sleep
The second thing and one of the most simplest thing that you could do to cure yourself from pneumonia disease is having the adequate time of sleep. Having the sufficient amount of time to rest would be very helpful to fight against any further infections and also will keep the proper function of your immune system to fight against many contaminants that could invade your body. So, having enough time to sleep will help you to create the stronger body and immune system that can prevent you from any types of pneumonia in the future.
- Quit Smoking
The third thing that you should do and could be very beneficial as the home remedies to fight against pneumonia disease is quitting smoking. We bet that you already know that smoking would bring various bad effects for the lungs and that is true. In the matter of fact, smoking would make the symptoms of pneumonia will be getting worse as the time goes by and also, smoking will also would cause various further complications of pneumonia in the lungs. Aside from smoking, you also need to avoid the area where the air may not be clean. Quit smoking right now, and let your lungs breathe a little while.
- Staying at Home for a While
The fourth thing that you should do and could be very beneficial as the home treatment to fight against pneumonia disease is staying at home for a while until the symptoms of pneumonia disease go away. Whenever you’re having pneumonia disease, it is very essential to not going to school or to work for a while until you fully recover from the symptoms of it. You could do your daily routine whenever your body temperature returns to normal again and you stop coughing up mucus. In case you’re not sure whether you’re already fully recovered or not, do not hesitate to ask your doctor.
- Take the Medicine as Prescribed
The fifth thing that you should do and could be very useful to treat the pneumonia disease is ensuring that you take your medicine as prescribed by your doctor. You need to make sure that you consume the medication with the dosage that already suggested by your doctor. This is very important since if you stop to take the medicine too soon, the lungs will be more likely and will have more possibilities to harbor bacteria that can multiply and thus, these things without a doubt could make the pneumonia disease to recur in the body. So, always take the dosage of your medicine rightly.
- Taking More Vitamin C
The next thing that you should do and could be very useful as the home remedies to treat the pneumonia disease is taking more Vitamin C. Whenever you’re having pneumonia disease, it would be beneficial if you consume the foods that contain high amounts of Vitamin C, such as fruits and vegetables, and also, you could consume the Vitamin C supplement if you want to.
There is an evidence that Vitamin C could be useful to relieve the symptoms of pneumonia disease. A study conducted in 2013 and published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews that involved more than 2300 people shows that there is a link beween Vitamin C and penumonia disease. That study has already shown that the regular consumption of Vitamin C can reduce the symptoms of pneumonia disease. So, always consume foods with high amounts of Vitamin C whenever you have the pneumonia disease.
- Taking Flu Vaccination
The next option that also could be beneficial as the prevention act and treatment of mild or moderate pneumonia is taking the flu vaccination. So, why is it beneficial to take the flu vaccination as the treatment and prevention act of mild and moderate pneumonia? As we all know, the complications of the flu could lead you to pneumonia disease. So, to prevent the further complications of pneumonia disease, the application of flu vaccines without a doubt would be beneficial to you.
So, the flu vaccines will work by killing and straining virus that cause the flu symptoms. As the other option, the flu vaccines are also available in the form of nasal sprays, which will weaken the forms of the viruses that causing flu. But, you need to take a notice that you shouldn’t take the flu vaccination if:
- You’ve had the serious reaction to the flu vaccination before.
- You have the high temperature. So, you need to wait until the body temperature returns back to normal.
- Taking Pneumococcal Vaccine
The next option that also could be beneficial as the prevention act and also as the treatment of mild or moderate pneumonia is taking the pneumococcal vaccine. So, as the name of this vaccination, the vaccine would be very beneficial to prevent your body from the infections of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, which then without a doubt would lead you to pneumonia disease. So, this vaccination will work by encouraging the body to produce the antibodies which will destroy and inhibit the growth of Streptococcus bacteria.
Basically, there are two types of pneumococcal vaccine, which are:
- Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, that commonly been used to vaccinate the babies and children under 2 years old, which will prevent your child from 13 strains of pneumococcal bacterium.
- Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, that commonly being used to vaccinate people aged 65 or over, which will prevent you from 23 strains of pneumococcal bacterium.
Treating and Diagnosing the Main Location and Cause of Pneumonia
The next type of treatments of pneumonia disease is diagnosing the main location and exact cause of pneumonia. Commonly this type of treatment will be performed by the doctor to check what is the exact cause of your pneumonia disease, whether it comes from bacteria or viruses or other causes. After your doctor already finds the main cause and location of your pneumonia, they could perform the further treatments to you and also, they will be able to prescribe you with some medications.
- Taking the Chest X-Rays
The first thing that you need to do whenever you’re suspected of having persistent pneumonia disease is taking the chest X-rays. So, the chest X-ray is a painless, noninvasive test that can create pictures of the structures of the chest, such as heart, lungs, and also your blood vessels. The goal of chest X-rays is to figure out and diagnose the current conditions of your pneumonia disease.
So, the doctor would be likely to perform the chest X-rays to you whenever you have these following conditions:
- The symptoms of your pneumonia disease haven’t improved yet after several weeks of having antibiotics.
- The symptoms of your pneumonia disease have come back or recur after taking the antibiotics and other medications.
- You have the smoking habits
- You are over the age of 50
After your doctor already performs the chest X-rays, they would be able to diagnose your current pneumonia condition and thus, they could decide the further treatment that would be beneficial for you.
- Taking the CT Scan
The other option that would help the doctor to find the exact location and cause of the pneumonia disease is by taking the CT scan. Basically, CT scan is closely related to the chest X-rays, but the pictures that provided with this method are more detailed. This CT scan can show the pictures of the soft tissues, blood vessels, and also lungs too. This method could be very beneficial if the doctor still doesn’t know the exact location or the main cause of the pneumonia after performing the chest X-rays. After they find out the exact location and the main cause of the pneumonia, the doctor then will be able to prescribe you the proper medications or inducing the further treatment.
- Having Sputum Culture
The next option that your doctor would likely to perform to find the exact location or the main cause of the pneumonia disease is inducing the sputum culture to their patient. So, when you have the respiratory tract infections or lung related disorder, your lungs will produce the substances called sputum. This sputum culture would be inducted to you as the solution for the doctor to find the exact cause of your pneumonia disease, whether it is caused by the bacteria, viruses, or fungi, through the sample of your sputum. Hopefully, after taking the sample of the sputum, the doctor and the laboratory technicians would be able to find out the main cause of the pneumonia disease, so that they could give you the proper medications afterwards.
Treating Bacterial Pneumonia
The next type of pneumonia is based on the exact cause of the pneumonia. Since the most common and the most usual suspect of pneumonia disease is bacteria, your doctor then will prescribe you the medication. Here is the treatment that you would likely to geth whenever you’re suspected of having the bacterial pneumonia.
- Taking Antibiotics
The most common things that the doctor would prescribe to you as the first treatment against pneumonia disease that caused by bacterial infections is taking antibiotics. These antibiotics commonly been used to treat mild pneumonia. One thing that you should notice whenever you’re taking antibiotics is that you need to finish the prescribed course of antibiotics, even if you feel that your condition is getting better than before.
If you stop taking these antibiotics before the prescribed course, you need to aware that the bacteria that causes the pneumonia disease could become resistant against antibiotics and thus, the bacteria wouldn’t get killed next time you take the antibiotics as the treatment of pneumonia disease. As your guide, here are the timeline to show the possibilities of the improvement of your pneumonia disease by taking the antibiotics:
- After one week, the fever must be resolved.
- After four weeks, the chest pain and the production of mucus should be reduced.
- After six weeks, The cough and the shortness of breath should be reduced.
- After three months, most of the symptoms of pneumonia disease should be resolved, although you might still feel very tired.
- After six months, every patient that suffers from pneumonia should returns to their normal condition.
However, if your pneumonia and the symptoms of it shows the longer timeline of the improvement guidelines that already mentioned above, you might have the severe pneumonia disease.
In addition to that, whenever the consumption of antibiotics doesn’t show the improvement at all after several weeks, there are a lot of possibilities related to your pneumonia disease, which are:
- The bacteria that causing the infections of your lungs is resistant to antibiotics.
- The main cause of the infections in the lungs is a virus, rather than bacteria.
- The airways inside the lungs are blocked.
- You’re suffering from severe pneumonia.
Treating Viral Pneumonia
The next type of pneumonia other than bacterial pneumonia is the viral pneumonia. Since the viral pneumonia wouldn’t be cured by the addition of antibiotics, this type of pneumonia could be cured with the different medication. Here is the treatment that the doctor would likely to do whenever you’re suspected of having viral pneumonia.
- Taking Tamiflu
The most common option that you need to do whenever you’re suspected of having the viral pneumonia is taking the tamiflu or commonly called as oseltamivir. This drug is commonly prescribed for the people who are having influenza A and B, and also flu symptoms. In the matter of fact, this tamiflu would also be very beneficial as the treatment against the pneumonia that caused by the viruses. But, you need to take the notice that just like any other medications, there are some side effects that commonly related to tamiflu, which are:
- Nausea and Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Stomach pain
- Headache
- Nosebleed
- Difficulty in speaking
- Chest pain and difficulty in breathing
Treating General Pneumonia
There are also the treatments that could be very beneficial regardless the exact cause of your pneumonia. These medications could be used whether you have bacterial pneumonia or viral pneumonia, or other types of pneumonia. So, here are some medications that would be very beneficial to treat the general pneumonia.
- Taking Paracetamols
The first option that also could be beneficial as the treatment to fight against the pneumonia disease is taking paracetamols. So, paracetamol is the medication that classified as the painkillers, which your doctor would prescribe to you to reduce the symptoms of pneumonia such as fever, high temperature, headache, and sprains. So, this paracetamol would be prescribed to you if you suffer from the mild pneumonia disease and wouldn’t help too much in case you have severe pneumonia.
So, paracetamol will help your body to ease the symptoms of mild penumonia by affecting the chemicals in the body called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are the substances that would be released as the response of injury or illness. Paracetamol would inhibit the production of prostaglandins, which then would make our body to less aware of any illness or injury.
- Taking Ibuprofen
The next option other than paracetamol that also could be beneficial as the treatment to fight against the pneumonia disease is taking ibuprofen. Same as the paracetamol, ibuprofen is also classified as the painkillers and also commonly been used to ease the symptoms of mild pneumonia disease, such as fever, high temperature, inflammation, and swelling. Since this medication would be very efficient to ease the symptoms of mild pneumonia, but ibuprofen wouldn’t help too much if you have severe pneumonia.
Ibuprofen will work in the same way as the paracetamols, which this medication would block the production of prostaglandins and thus, the body would be less aware of various illnesses and injuries. You must take the notice that ibuprofen’ effects would begin soon after you take it, but the anti-inflammatory properties of ibuprofen are weak, which make you need to be very patient to get the best result from it to ease the symptoms of the pneumonia that related to inflammation.
- Taking Prednisolone
The next option that also could be beneficial as the treatment against pneumonia disease is taking prednisolone. Prednisolone is the type of medication that classified as the corticosteroid and the doctor would prescribe you this medication if the use of antibiotics don’t show any improvement at all after several weeks. Since the pneumonia is caused by the inflammation and infections in the lungs, this prednisolone could be the potent cure to your pneumonia. This medication will work by modifying your immune system’s response to various conditions and decreasing the inflammation.
But, you need to remember that you wouldn’t recommended to use this medication if you have:
- You are allergic of any ingredients of prednisolone.
- You have the systematic fungal infection, or certain type of malaria, inflammation of the optic nerve.
- You are scheduled to have the live vaccination.
- Taking Methylprednisolone
The next option other than prednisolone that also could be beneficial as the treatent of pneumonia disease is taking methylprednisolone. So, same as prednisolone, the methylprednisolone is classified as the corticosteroid, the medication that will prevent the production of substances in the body that can cause the inflammation in various conditions, such as arthritis, lupus, allergic disorders, and also conditions that affect the skin, eyes, stomach, lungs, nervous system, and blood cells. So, this medication without a doubt would be beneficial for people who have pneumonia disease.
But, please take a notice that you shouldn’t take this medication as the treatment of pneumonia if you have a fungal infection anywhere in the body. Take this medication exactly as prescribed by the doctor. Do not take this medication smaller or larger than the dosage that prescribed by the doctor. If you have unpleasant withdrawal in your symptoms, you need to call your doctor for further instructions.
Treating Severe of Fatal Pneumonia
These treatments would be induced whenever the doctor suspects that you have the severe or fatal pneumonia. Severe pneumonia can cause the complications and couldn’t be cured with the common medications that already mentioned above and this type of pneumonia needed the special and further treatments. Here are the treatment that you will likely to get whenever you’re suffering from severe and fatal pneumonia.
- Having Bronchoscopy Test
The further diagnosis that commonly inducted by the doctor to find the main cause of the pneumonia disease is the bronchoscopy test. This test is commonly occurring whenever the doctor couldn’t find any invaders in the lungs, whether it is a bacteria or virus. This further diagnosis would also inducted whenever the antibiotics or other medications that already mentioned above just don’t work properly and shown no improvement at all related to your pneumonia disease.
The bronchoscopy is a test that will allow your doctor to examine your airways. So, the doctor would thread an instrument that commonly called as bronchoscope through your nose and then down your throat to reach the lungs. This bronchoscope is commonly made from the fiber optic material and have the viewing camera device at the end of it. As the result, the doctor would be able to view whether the airways inside the lungs are blocked or not. If the airways are blocked, you need to have the severe pneumonia treatment that will be mentioned below.
- Having Oxygen Therapy
The first treatment whenever you’re having the severe pneumonia and already suffer from the complications of pneumonia is having the oxygen therapy. So, the oxygen therapy is the medication tha prescribed by the doctor for the people who can’t get enough air and oxygen on their own. As you already know, the severe pneumonia would prevent the lungs from absorbing the oxygens because of the infections that commonly caused by either bacteria or viruses.
So, whenever you’re having the oxygen therapy, you will have the additional supply of oxygen through the liquid oxygen that commonly stored in a portable tank. Because you have the additional supply of oxygen, you could have the sufficient amount of oxygen as well as stay active since the liquids oxygen could be stored at the portable tanks and you could easily bring it everywhere and anytime. But, you need to take the notice that you’re not recommended to bring the portable oxygen tanks around the area that really flammable and have the high temperature.
- Having Intravenous Fluid Regulations
The next treatment that you should get whenever you’re suffering from the severe pneumonia disease and also have the complications of pneumonia disease is having the intravenous fluid regulations. So, intravenous fluid regulation is the control of the amount of fluids that the patients would receive when they’re getting treatment via the administration of fluids through the blood vessels, especially the vein. So, the intravenous fluid regulation commonly involves injecting fluid through the vein. In case you’re having the severe pneumonia, the doctor would be injecting the antibiotics through the vein.
But, just like any other medications, the intravenous fluid regulation is also has several side effects. Whenever the doctor is giving you too much antibiotics injection, you could suffer from headache, high blood pressure, and difficulty in breathing, while too little of antibiotics injection wouldn’t make the severe pneumonia and the symptoms of pneumonia become better at all and thus, you couldn’t get the expected result from this intravenous fluid regulation.
So, now you already know everything that you need to know related to the pneumonia, mostly about the treatment of pneumonia. This disease is classified as the hazardous disease, but this disease is totally preventable if you’re applying the healthy lifestyle. So, stay healthy and stay away from pneumonia.