Causes of Pneumonia, Symptoms and Treatment

by John Mathew

Pneumonia is a common but potentially deadly inflammation of the lungs, usually caused by an infection. When the air sacs in the lungs become infected, pus and other liquid fill them, making it difficult to breathe and difficult for oxygen to reach your blood. Pneumonia can affect a single section of your lungs, in which case it's called lobar pneumonia, or it can affect patches throughout both lungs, in which case it's called multifocal pneumonia. If both lungs are infected, it's known as multibar pneumonia.
There are about 30 different causes of pneumonia. However, they all fall into one of these categories:

* Infective pneumonia: Inflammation and infection of the lungs and bronchial tubes that occurs when a bacteria (bacterial pneumonia) or virus (viral pneumonia) gets into the lungs and starts to reproduce.

* Aspiration pneumonia: An inflammation of the lungs and bronchial tubes caused by inhaling vomit, mucous, or other bodily fluids. Aspiration pneumonia can also be caused by inhaling certain chemicals.

Typical symptoms are cough, fever, sweats, shivers, being off food, and feeling generally unwell. Headaches, and aches and pains are common. You usually make more sputum which may become yellow/green, and is sometimes bloodstained. You may become breathless, breathe fast, and develop a 'tight chest'. A sharp pain in the side of the chest may develop if the infection involves the pleura. (This is the membrane between the lung and the chest wall.) A doctor may hear 'crackles' in the chest when listening with a stethoscope.

When a person encounters the symptoms of pneumonia - cough, shortness of breath, chest pain that fluctuates with breathing, fever accompanied with chills and sweats or aggravation of a flu or cold - he or she should consult a doctor right away because this condition may become lethal in some cases if left untreated.

If bacteria cause the pneumonia it can usually be easily treated with antibiotics. Viruses do not respond to antibiotics, but if your pneumonia is caused by a virus antibiotics may be used to help prevent any secondary infections.

Doctors treat pneumonia based on the type of pneumonia a person has as well as other individual factors, such as age and overall health. Bacterial pneumonia is usually treated with antibiotics. Fungal pneumonia is treated with antifungal agents. Viral pneumonia may be treated with antiviral medications but is more often treated simply with recommendations of rest and plenty of fluids. In addition, for all types of pneumonia, doctors often suggest taking over-the-counter medications to reduce fever and pain.

If the pneumonia is severe, or the person affected is either very old or frail they may need to be treated in hospital where antibiotics and extra fluids and can be given straight into the vein (intravenously). If breathing is difficult, extra oxygen can be given through a facemask. About one in every six people with pneumonia are ill enough to need this kind of specialised care.

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Fluid Pneumonia

by Ryan Fyfe

Pneumonia, is when the lungs fill with fuild, and in turn prevent oxygen from reaching the bloodstream. This is a medical condition that can have result from severl diseases where the tiny, air-filled saces in the lung, which are responsible for absorbing oxygen from the air, are filled with fluid. Many different types of pneumonia exist. The most commony types are results of a bacterial infection of the lung. Several other things can cause pneumonia, such as viruses, fungi, and parasites.

Another type of pneumonia occurs as a result of chemical or physical irritation to the lungs.
A common sickness, pneumonia, occurs basically evenly among all age groups. Caused by infection in most cases, pneumonia, will often cause difficulty breathing, coughs, fevers, and chest pains. Antibiotic Medication is normally used to treat pneumonia when it has been caused by an infection.

Victims of pneumonia will often have a cough that produces green/yellow sputum. This is one of the leading symptoms of pneumonia as well as a high fever followed by shaking chills. Pneumonia is usually diagnosed by health care providers observations on a patient's symptoms and discoveries from various physical examinations. Pneumonia diagnoses can be difficult for some people. This is especially true for those who have other illnesses at the time of examination. Often times physical examination by a health provider may reveal low amount of oxygen in the blood, low blood pressure, an increased respiratory rate, low body temperature, a fast heart rate, or a fever.

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Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Pneumonia Symptoms - http://www.pneumonia-symptoms.com, which is the best site on the internet for all pneumonia related information.

Home Remedies for Pneumonia

by Krishan Bakhru

To begin with, the patient should be kept on a diet of raw juices for five to seven days, depending on the severity of the disease. In this regimen, he should take a glass of fruit or vegetable juice, diluted with warm water on 50:50 basis, every two hours. Fruits such as orange, mussombi, apple, pineapple and grapes and vegetables like carrots and tomatoes may be used for juices.

After a diet of raw juices, when the fever subsides, the patient should spend three or four further days on an exclusive fresh fruit diet, taking three meals a day of juicy fruits such as apple, grapes, pineapple, mango, orange, lemon and papaya. Thereafter, he may gradually adopt a well-balanced diet of natural foods consisting of seeds, nuts and grains, vegetables and fruits, with emphasis on fresh fruits and raw vegetables. The patient should be given warm water enema daily to cleanse the bowels during the period of raw juice therapy and all-fruit diet and thereafter, when necessary.

The patient should avoid strong tea, coffee, refined foods, fried foods, white sugar, white flour and all products made from them, condiments and pickles. He should also avoid all meats as well as alcoholic beverages and smoking.

Certain home remedies have been found beneficial in the treatment of pneumonia. During the early acute stage of this disease, herbal tea made from fenugreek seeds will help the body to produce perspiration, dispel toxicity and shorten the period of fever. It can be taken up to four cups daily. The quantity should be reduced as condition improves. To improve flavour, a few drops of lemon juice can be used. During this treatment, no other food or nourishment should be taken as fasting and fenugreek will help the body to correct these respiratory problems.

According to Dr. F. W. Crosman, an eminent physician, garlic is a marvellous remedy for pneumonia, if given in sufficient quantities. This physician used garlic for many years in pneumonia, and said that in no instance did it fail to bring down the temperature as well as the pulse and respiration, within 48 hours. Garlic juice can also be applied externally to the chest with beneficial results as it is an irritant and rubefacient.

Sesame seeds are valuable in pneumonia. An infusion of the seeds, mixed with a tablespoon of linseed, a pinch of common salt and desertspoon of honey, should be given in the treatment of this disease. This will help remove catarrhal matter and phlegm from the bronchial tubes.

The pain of pneumonia can be relieved by rubbing oil of turpentine over the rib cage and wrapping warmed cotton wool over it.

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Preventing Pneumonia With A Simple Vaccination

by Ethan Armitage

Pneumonia is an infectious disease that can affect on or both lungs of a person. This condition used to be a leading cause of death 2 hundred years ago. Pneumonia is produced by microorganisms that damage the tissues of the lungs and cause infections. If it is left untreated, this condition can become very serious.

For its treatment, antibiotics are successfully used. It is important for this treatment to be taken as soon as possible because if it is left untreated, it can generate serious complications. Because of its resembling symptoms, most people confuse it with a strong cold and they only realize it is pneumonia after the symptoms aggravate. The best thing to do is to prevent this disease through a pneumonia vaccine.

Protection against the pneumonia can be provided by a vaccine. Why is it important to prevent pneumonia? Because the infection of the lungs can be spread to other parts of the body and damage the whole organism. Getting a pneumonia vaccine is a good thing to do especially for old people and for people with weakened immune system.

The pneumonia vaccine is also recommended to people that work in hospitals or that have to spend some time in a hospital because the pneumonia is spreading through air and if one infected patient sneezes or coughs, the germ can spread on a very wide area and infect many people. The vaccine usually lasts a lifetime and it can spare a person of a lot of trouble with only one shot. In the cases of people that suffer from other conditions or affected immune system, the vaccination is recommended to be done periodically because sometimes pneumonia can kill.

Also, in the case of people over the age of 65 but who have had a pneumonia vaccine in the past, a doctor's opinion should be asked for. That opinion will probably be to take a new vaccine because the risks are increased after that age. The vaccine begins to work after two weeks.

Although the effectiveness of the vaccine is 100%, there may be some factors that can weaken it. One of those factors would be the stress. There are cases of people that live or work in stressful environments that may require the vaccination to be taken yearly. As side effects of this vaccine, in very rare cases fever and irritation may appear.

For more information on the pneumonia vaccine, talk to your doctor. This shot can spare a man of a lot of trouble.

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What is a Diagnosis of Pneumonia ? Read about pneumonia symptoms and walking pneumonia