Bronchitis

A cough that brings up yellowish-gray or green mucus (sputum) is one of the main signs of bronchitis. Mucus itself isn't abnormal, your airways normally produce up to several tablespoons of mucus secretions every day. But these secretions usually don't accumulate, because they're continuously cleared into your throat and swallowed with your saliva.

When the main air passageways in your lungs (bronchial tubes) are inflamed, they often produce large amounts of discolored mucus that comes up when you cough. If this persists for more than three months, it is referred to as chronic bronchitis. Mucus that isn't white or clear usually means there's a secondary infection.

Still, bronchitis symptoms can be deceptive. You don't always produce sputum when you have bronchitis, and children often swallow coughed-up material, so parents may not know there's a secondary infection. Many smokers have to clear their throat every morning when they get up. While they may think this is normal for everyone, it's not. If it continues for more than three months, it may be chronic bronchitis.

Acute bronchitis also may be accompanied by common signs and symptoms of an upper respiratory infection, including:

• Soreness and a feeling of constriction or burning in your chest
• Sore throat
• Chest congestion
• Sinus fullness
• Breathlessness
• Wheezing
• Slight fever and chills
• Overall malaise

Sometimes chronic sinusitis, an ongoing infection in the lining of one or more of the cavities in the bone around your nose, can mimic bronchitis. That's because the signs and symptoms of chronic sinusitis include a thick, yellow or green postnasal discharge and a chronic cough that's triggered when you try to clear your throat of mucus draining from your sinuses, instead of your lungs, as is the case with bronchitis.

The same viruses that cause colds often cause acute bronchitis. But you can also develop noninfectious bronchitis from exposure to your own or someone else's cigarette smoke and even from pollutants such as household cleaners and smog.

Bronchitis may also occur when acids from your stomach consistently back up into your food pipe, a condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). And workers exposed to certain dusts or fumes may develop occupational bronchitis, an acute disease that generally clears up when exposure to the irritant stops.

Sometimes inflammation and thickening of the lining of your bronchial tubes become permanent a condition known as chronic bronchitis. Signs and symptoms include shortness of breath and a continual cough that produces large amounts of mucus. You're generally considered to have chronic bronchitis if you cough most days for at least three months a year in two consecutive years. Often, however, smokers with chronic bronchitis cough almost every day, even if it's just to "clear their throats" in the morning.

Unlike acute bronchitis, chronic bronchitis is an ongoing, serious disease. Smoking is the major cause, but air pollution and dust or toxic gases in the environment or workplace also can contribute to the condition. In some people, chronic inflammation of the airways may lead to asthma.

People who smoke or who live with a smoker are at greatest risk of both acute and chronic bronchitis. Children whose parents or siblings smoke also are susceptible to bronchitis, as well as to asthma, pneumonia, colds and ear infections (otitis media).

Other factors that increase your risk of bronchitis include:

• Low resistance. This may result from another acute illness, such as a cold, or from a chronic condition that compromises your immune system. Older adults, infants and young children also have greater vulnerability to infection.
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Stomach acids that persistently back up into your esophagus may cause a chronic cough, usually through a reflex mechanism.
• Exposure to certain irritants on the job. You run the risk of developing occupational bronchitis if you work around certain lung irritants, such as grains or textiles, or are exposed to chemical fumes from ammonia, strong acids, chlorine, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide or bromine. The cough associated with occupational bronchitis may be dry (nonproductive). Occupational bronchitis usually clears up when you're no longer exposed to these substances.

Healthy Trust Immediate Medical Care serves the Chicago North Shore Communities of Lake County, Wheeling, Prospect Heights, Lincolnshire, Deerfield, Buffalo Grove, Northbrook, Highland Park, Long Grove, Riverwoods, Des Plaines, Palatine, Glenview, Highwood, Northfield, Libertyville, Winnetka, Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Mundelein, and Bannockburn.