How is bronchitis caused? Bronchitis is an infection of the respiratory tract and it is caused by either bacteria or viruses. The windpipe and the airways in the lungs are usually coated with a thin mucus lining to keep it moist and protected. When this gets inflamed, infection can set in and this results in a lot of mucus being formed and you cough because coughing helps to expel this excess mucus from the lungs.
There are two types of bronchitis – acute and chronic. Acute bronchitis is a condition where the symptoms progress rapidly and unless there are complications, the infection runs its course and the person gets well again. In most cases, the cause is viral and not bacterial so all a doctor can do is to treat the disease symptomatically. You can get the infection from anyone who has bronchitis. The disease is infectious only during the first week, then it runs its course for another week and the person could be all right after that except for a cough that lasts a while. The infection can spread through the air or through touch. This is why doctors ask you to wash your hands very often and maintain the highest degree of hygiene. If there is a bronchitis case in the place you work or in your home, you might want to wear a mask because you can get infected through the air.
In rare cases, bronchitis can also be caused by acid reflux or GERD. The constant coming up of the stomach acids irritate the wind pipe and this makes it easy for it to get inflamed and infected.
Most of the time, your body has its own protective screens in place. In the nose, it is the cilia hairs which trap any dust and the germs on them so they cannot enter the respiratory system. When your immune system isn’t as strong as it should be, these hairs let infection escape inside and the viruses or bacteria go down and infect the airways. If the lining in the respiratory system is already inflamed because of a cold or because of cigarette smoke or pollutants, the infection attacks the whole area and the symptoms of bronchitis come on. The progress is usually rapid and what starts as a cough very quickly becomes a very bad cough with maybe wheezing, a tight feeling in the chest, muscle aches and shortness of breath.
In chronic bronchitis, the cause is usually smoking though in rare cases, it could be pollutants other than cigarette smoke. Not only does it harm smokers, passive smokers are in danger of contracting bronchitis as well. The cigarette smoke irritates the windpipe and the airways and when the virus or bacteria attack comes, infection sets in. In chronic bronchitis, the progress is usually slow and can take months, even years. All that will be manifested will be a dry cough that does not go away. Only later will the symptoms of a bad cough, wheezing or shortness of breath show up.
In both types, when the thin, protective mucus lining in the respiratory tract becomes inflamed and infected, there is an increased production of mucus. The inflammation and the mucus result in the tubes getting narrow and this is why the person feels short of breath. In fact, the body’s response to infection is swelling and this is what adds to the narrowing of the tubes and the shortness of breath. The worse the symptoms, the more short of breath the patient feels. Coughing is the body’s instinctive way to try and expel this excess mucus from the bronchial tubes so that there can be more space for the air to get into the lungs. The coughing brings up some of the inflammatory cells from the lungs and this is what makes the mucus colored. Sometimes, the inflammation and the coughing are so bad that there is bleeding and this is when the mucus appears to be streaked with blood.
Acute bronchitis is usually caused by viruses that are very similar to the cold and flu viruses. Like a cold and flu, it lasts for a few days or a couple of weeks till the body fights off the virus from the system. Chronic bronchitis is also an infection but it is slow to grow in intensity and it stays in the body for a long time, with the pollutants making it conducive for it to stay in the respiratory tract.
Very often, the causes of bronchitis can be aging and a weak immune system. As one ages, the immune system gets weak and makes you susceptible to infection. This could also happen at any age after an illness when your immunity is low. The young too, can get bronchitis easily before their immune system has had a chance to get strong.