Pneumonia - The simple facts and the cures

What is Pneumonia: Pneumonia is an infection that causes the air sacs in the lungs to fill with fluid, making it hard for you to breathe, and causes you to cough up phlegm. Pneumonia is an ancient Greek word, which means 'lungs'. Pneumonia can occur in patients of all age groups, but young children, and older people are especially at risk.

What causes Pneumonia: Pneumonia is caused by many things. However, bacteria are the most common causes of pneumonia. The most common bacteria that causes pneumonia is 'Streptococcus pneumoniae', Streptococcus pyogenes or Group A Streptococcus can also cause pneumonia. Workers that are exposed to cattle are at a risk for pneumonia caused by anthrax.

Symptoms Of Pneumonia: There are quite a few symptoms that may show up with Pneumonia, the most common ones are: Cough with a yellow or greenish mucus or Phlegm, Fever often with chills and the shakes, Soreness or pain in the chest, worsened by breathing deeply or coughing, Shallow breathing, Shortness of breath, Bloody mucus or phlegm, Headache, Sweating and sometimes clammy skin, Fatigue and weakness, Decreased appetite. If left untreated Pneumonia can advance to 'blood poisoning', and severe respiratory distress.

Treatment For Pneumonia: If you have a bacterial pneumonia, you will need to take an antibiotic. The antibiotic will depend on your age, and your medical conditions. You should also drink lots of fluids to stay hydrated, since this helps your body fight the pneumonia. Anti-fever medicines such as Tylenol or Advil may also help you feel better. Cough as much as you comfortably can, to help clear the mucus and phlegm from your lungs. You must avoid cigarette or other tobacco smoke while you recover from pneumonia, since smoking hurts your body's ability to fight infection and makes your healing take a lot longer. If you've been diagnosed with viral pneumonia, you need to rest and drink plenty of fluids. If you work much or over-exert yourself when you have viral pneumonia, you can possibly get sicker. You can use over the counter medicines to reduce fever, body aches, and cough. You can take over the counter medicines such as Tylenol to help you feel better, but you still must rest and drink lots of fluids in order for your body to heal and get better.

Pneumonia Prevention: There are a few things you can do to help reduce your risk for getting Pneumonia, such as: Washing your hands frequently, Don t smoke, and avoid second-hand smoke, Stay away from those who have a cold or the flu, Drink plenty of fluids, Keep Active, and if your in the Hospital try deep breathing exercises and cough up any mucus or Phlegm to help keep the lungs exercised and clear.

There is a website that provides cures, facts and other great information on Pneumonia and numerous medical conditions, the website is called: All About Health, and can be found at this url:

http://www.rb59.com/medical-health-info

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright © 2007

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter, or on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.

Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software business on the internet for over 5 years, and has been producing low-cost software for the past 25+ years. He first released products on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970's-80's.

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