Bronchitis simply means an inflammation of the bronchus, the windpipe. This is usually caused by infection(viral, bacterial, fungal, etc) or allergy  or both. This condition is widely prevalent throughout the world and is a frequent cause of absenteeism from school and work.

Causes of bronchitis:

 Allergy

(environmental and industrial pollutants, pollen, etc.)

• Tobacco
• Infections (viral, bacterial, fungus
• Immunological
• Exposure to temperature changes (extreme cold, change from cold to heat and vise versa, etc.)

Symptoms:

Cough is the most common symptom. The cough may be either dry (without mucus) or wet (with mucus), depending on the cause and severity. Allergic cough is often dry while infective cough has a tendency to have mucus production. The symptoms of Bronchitis may be listed as under:

• Cough (with or without mucus)
• Fever
• Chest pain,
• Difficulty in breathing. (dyspnea)
• Throat pain
• Nose congestion,
• Body ache, joint pain, tiredness (usually due to infection.) .

Acute, Recurrent and Chronic bronchitis:

A single episode of bronchitis which may resolve within less than three weeks may be called as an Acute Bronchitis.

If there is an underlying cause of lowered immunity, tendency to catch infection or if there are factors such as Smoking and environmental pollution; there may be a tendency to have Recurrent Bronchitis.

Those patients who have lowered immunity and / or are exposed to maintaining factors such as smoking, pollutants (pneumoconiosis, excessive alcohol consumption and exposure to cold and draught, etc.) may present with Chronic Bronchitis, whereby the patients may have symptoms of Bronchitis for long time, as long as two months to over years.

Role of homeopathic treatment:

Homeopathy has proven treatment which helps towards:

• Relieving nasty cough
• Controlling and treating the underlying tendency to catch cold and cough
• Improving immunity and general vitality
• Reducing the severity, frequency and duration in case of Recurrent bronchitis
• Helping allergic as well as infective cases of bronchitis