OT: Bronchitis

[Stephen Fortner]

I've been prone to this dainty little condition since I was a small child. In the past ten years or so, I've been relatively free of it thanks to weight loss, proper eating, exercise, and vitamins. But Monday it came to visit... with a vengeance. Fever peaked at 104 Mon night - the magic brain-frying number, but then went down.

Been hovering around 102 all day today.

 

The real pissah is, I had tickets to Depeche Mode at the Staples Center last night, and though I'd stuffed myself full of every symptom-relieving drug on the planet, still felt too sick to go. Upside is, that made me feel no guit at all about cancelling my class this morning, as I did Monday night. No one wants to be instructed by "Frank Snotra"

 

So today I've been drinking lots of chamomile tea, orange juice, and trying to stay in the floaty haze induced by my favorite cocktail of 12-hour Sudafed, Motrin, and Robitussin. I like to try to stay away from anti-biotics as much as possible- they both make the disease more resilient and make my stomach feel like a bunch of tiny hippies and ravers are holding a Lilliputian Burning Man festival in there.

 

Don't mean to be whiny. People have posted here with real, scary health threats and rightfully gotten tons of support. Sometimes moderators need to vent too, is all.

 

Anyone got any herbal remedies? Witchcraft? A croquet mallet to knock me out until this is over? Arrrrgghhh...

[linwood]

For what it's worth: info on the benefits of Olive Leaf Extract: http://users.rcn.com/wussery/olive1.html

 

I recommend buying the Olive Leaf Extract with Hawthorne (2 capsules = 1 dose, 500mg) made by PhytoPharmica. This is the precise formula that was tested in Germany. Other brands may substitute ingredients that may make it less effective. When you are fighting a virus/infection, you want to take 2 capsules, 3 times a day. In other words 1,500mg. (You can also take 500mg, 3 days a week, as a prophylactic.) You can buy it directly from PhytoPharmica, although Ive seen it online for less thru discount drug stores, such as: http://supplements-fast.com/index.html?target=p_669.html&lang=en-us

[K K]

Oh I still remember the last time I had a 104-degrees fever about two decades ago. As soon as I closed my eyes to relax or try to sleep, I felt like I was entering an endless tunnel and started spiraling in it... Lovely awaken nightmare. My mother told me I was meanwhile talking alone, but I couldn't remember it.

 

Now, when I get a tough cold like you have (or a laryngitis or sinusitis), I'm lucky to have a doctor not afraid to prescribe me a good codeine syrup. So when you start coughing like crazy as soon as you lay down, with this thing at least you can stop the cough and go to sleep.

[Ricochet]

Kids don't commonly get bacterial bronchitis (but get diagnosed and treated for it a lot.) Most kids who repeatedly get coughing illnesses called "bronchitis" are undiagnosed asthmatics. Took me till I was about 34 years old to realize that was my situation. (Mine pretty much only acts up when I get a respiratory virus.) You might consider this possibility, too. Asthma responds best to different treatments than the usual cough & cold remedies. You're right to minimize use of antibiotics.

[Erroll]

This one works EVERY time (originally from an Edgar Cayce reading).

 

Get a bottle of Calvados (Coeur du Lion is excellent) or domestic Applejack brandy. Pour a small brandy snifter, heat with the hands...AND NOW PAY ATTENTION: INHALE THE FUMES IN DEEP HELD BREATHS.

 

You are permitted to imbibe, of course, but that would be more palliative than therapeutic in nature.

 

How does this work? Simple: the tannins in the apple brandy destroy bacteria and viri. Just be sure to get APPLE brandy. Grapes won't do here.

 

You'll notice almost instant relief once you start.

[Andre Lower]

Originally posted by Ricochet:

...Most kids who repeatedly get coughing illnesses called "bronchitis" are undiagnosed asthmatics.

Well Stephen, I'm one of those cases of undiagnosed asthma pointed out by Ricochet. Perhaps this is not your problem, but I'll describe it anyway 'cause it might end up helping someone after all: Since I can remember, I'd keep coughing for a couple of months after I had a flu or anything similar to that. Lazy as I am, I regarded it as a post-disease, normal symptom. My wife is a doctor, and she referred me to a pneumologist colleague, who did diagnose me as a case of light asthma. It could have gone undetected forever, because I keep myself in good cardio-respiratory condition (I swim three times a week) and the damn cough only shows up after flu events.

 

Anyway, the main point is that a light asthma is bound to step up in case you do not treat it, because it is an allergic phenomena and you get progressively sensitized with every crisis. Lack of attention towards it may turn a mild asthma into something much more serious. In my case, this pneumologist tackled the problem with a mild but effective drug. It's a little disc-shaped gadget which contains real small doses of corticoid to sniff, called SERETIDE (by GlaxoWellcome). Now whenever I get any flu-like event (typically once or twice a year) I sniff this thing for a couple of days after the flu has gone and stop coughing immediately. It works like a charm, with the organic advantage that the drug dose is incredibly small because it is delivered straight to your bronchi.

 

Hope this helps .

[Erroll]

Beg to differ here. But using corticosteroids is just plain irresponsible. Even a small dose (homeopathic) will have the standard deleterious affect on the body (lowered immunity, hormonal imbalance, imbalance of assimilation/elimination etc.)

 

Asthma is essentially an immune reaction, most commonly related to dairy, wheat, chocolate, coffee and tea allergy (in order from most common to least).

 

The holistic approach is superior to the allopathic in that it addresses the cause, removes it temporarily, and using homeopathic or other modalities, the reaction in the body can be rebalanced to nominal.

 

Steroids only work as anti-inflammatory agents, thus they are palliative and not properly therapeutic in nature.

 

Testing for allergies has become quite automated in the last 15 years, with the most common method being machines which give radionic query and read galvanic skin response.

 

Of course, if the apple brandy inhaling doesn't bring instant relief, then an allergic reaction becomes the prime candidate.

[cg1155]

Originally posted by Erroll:

Beg to differ here. But using corticosteroids is just plain irresponsible. Even a small dose (homeopathic) will have the standard deleterious affect on the body (lowered immunity, hormonal imbalance, imbalance of assimilation/elimination etc.)

I'm sorry but as a doctor (and I don't play that card often online) I must completely disagree. I would like to point out that in scientific studies no homeopathic remedy has ever been shown to be effective for any condition it has claimed to treat.

 

With regards to bronchitis, most adult and pediatric cases are viral and do not require antibiotics. Bacteria are most often implicated in bronchitis in smokers, and even then antibiotics have not been shown to be of much help. Treating the symptoms is about as good as it gets these days.

 

As far as asthma is concerned, it is certainly true that mild asthma can go undiagnosed for years, but it is rarely associated with fever, so that would make Steve's case far less likely to be asthma. And that's it for me.

[Faruk]

Well,

I am suffering from the same condition since I was a boy. Today I even smoke a lot (hydro engineering poster child) and I am on the verge of having chronic condition.

I come from a familly with a long line of medical proffesionals and all of them pointed me to the one thing: Honey and honey based products like propolys. For a couple of years now I am taking honey on daily basis and I my condition is getting much better.

 

Faruk

[Dave Horne]

This one works EVERY time (originally from an Edgar Cayce reading).

I had to smile when I read that one. They've been pulling his books off the market (his own foundation) since his predictions didn't come to pass. For a full history into all of this google James Randi and JREF.

 

For homeopathy also see Randi and http://www.quackwatch.org/index.html

 

My wife's best friend has a 'license' for homeopathy. She's great at treating 'problems' that would get better on their own within three days. She can not perform emergency first aid but she can practice medicine just the same. I should also add that she falsified her own children's school records to state they had received vaccines when in fact they hadn't. Criminal. She doesn't believe in vaccines.

[Andre Lower]

Originally posted by Dave Horne:

...I should also add that she falsified her own children's school records to state they had received vaccines when in fact they hadn't. Criminal. She doesn't believe in vaccines.

Well, there are people who do not believe Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, people who believe Paul McArtney was dead in 1967, etc.

 

Then again risking someone else's health is not laughable at all.

[KeyMan035]

Stephen, sorry to hi-jack your thread, but I do feel a responsibility to correct medical misinformation on the internet when it shows up.

 

As a doctor who cares for children with asthma, the inhaled steroids that we use are extremely safe and effective. There are dozens of sound medical studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and in Pediatrics that show no deleterious effect on immunity. These children are NOT more likely to get infections or cancer than children who don't take steroids. In fact, these children have fewer asthma exacerbations, fewer days in the hospital, fewer ER visits, and fewer deaths. They live a better quality of life and enjoy more symptom free days. The fact is that national asthma expert guidelines do recommend inhaled steroids as extremely safe and extremely beneficial in treating ashtma.