How to recover from bronchitis for an adult

Bronchitis, as an inflammation of the tracheobronchial tree, is accompanied by abundant mucus formation, edema. Tachycardia, weakness after illness - reactions to a reduced supply of oxygen. With inflammation, bronchial drainage, lymph movement, and the correct breathing mechanism worsen. Complications arise if the infection re-enters the respiratory tract against a background of weakened immunity. It is important to know how to recover from bronchitis for an adult, strengthen local immunity and avoid chronicity of the process.

Basic principles of rehabilitation

Rehabilitation after bronchitis begins when the acute process subsides or exacerbations, when it comes to the chronic form. The purpose of the measures is to increase the local immunity of the bronchi, the overall resistance to infections and negative influences. Physical rehabilitation helps to restore the respiratory system:

• improves blood circulation and lymph outflow;
• reduces changes in tissues;
• restores bronchial drainage;
• resumes the correct breathing pattern.

The recovery period after bronchitis can last more than a month. After acute bronchitis, the cough lasts another 4 weeks. In the chronic course, exacerbations alternate with remission, and rehabilitation helps to reduce symptoms and improve pulmonary ventilation.

Medical therapy

Only in chronic cases, corticosteroid inhalers are used to reduce inflammation and sputum production. Instead of steroid drugs, the drug fenspiride was tested. It reduces the level of airway obstruction, the amount of sputum discharge, since it reduces the synthesis of secretions, but does not lead to expectoration.

Preparations for recovery from bronchitis in adults include vitamin therapy. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) protects the respiratory tract from the effects of bacterial toxins, improves recovery at the level of cellular metabolism. Vitamin B5 affects the activity of the adrenal glands, which stimulate the immune system, and vitamin B12 improves the production of red blood cells for oxygen metabolism. Vitamin C is an anti-inflammatory agent that regenerates the vascular network. Vitamin E is essential as an antioxidant and support for the liver.

Rehabilitation after acute bronchitis

Acute inflammation in the bronchi in 30% of cases is infectious. Chest pain is associated with overexertion of the respiratory muscles during coughing. There is shortness of breath on exhalation, tachycardia, the chest loses mobility, the muscles of the neck spasm. The changes persist even after inflammation is reduced. Physical activity is required, since it is difficult to restore health after bronchitis only by passive methods. To prevent a pathological effect on the heart, muscular apparatus, bronchi and lungs, breathing exercises begin almost from the first week of the disease.

Therapeutic gymnastics is a remedy for bronchitis, which helps to recover quickly. Full body and breathing exercises are used. Walking on a treadmill (at home) or walking in the fresh air is allowed, you can use an exercise bike or rowing machine. Instead of simulators, a tape expander is suitable, with the help of which traction movements are performed first on inspiration - to open the chest, on exhalation - to promote the respiratory muscles of exhalation.

Recovery from bronchitis is facilitated by diaphragmatic breathing - this is a lateral expansion of the chest (lower ribs) on inspiration. The patient should try not to raise the shoulder girdle and collarbone, but to work with the intercostal muscles. Additionally, a towel is used to wrap the chest, creating resistance - where to direct the breath.

The set of exercises of the first week includes:

1. Diaphragmatic breathing in the supine position - 2 minutes.
2. I.P. lying on your back, clasp your hands “in the lock”. Slowly raise the arms while inhaling, lowering while exhaling. Do 8 repetitions.
3. I.P. the same. Inhale and raise your hand from the side of the affected lung up, while exhaling, pull the opposite knee to your chest and touch it with your hand. For each side 5-8 times.
4. Roll over on a healthy side: diaphragmatic breathing will help to engage the affected area, straighten the lungs after bronchitis, improve ventilation and bronchial patency. Perform up to 1-1.5 minutes.
5. I.P. the same. Perform circular rotations of the arm on the affected side at an average pace - 10 times.
6. I.P. the same. Put the palm on the affected area of ​​the chest, trying to inhale into the hand - 2 minutes.
7. Perform diaphragmatic breathing, while inhaling, pulling the arm back and bending the body in the thoracic region. As you exhale, return to the starting position, contracting the abdominal muscles - up to 8 times.

To recover from bronchitis, you need to breathe regularly from the diaphragm.

Exercises can be carried out with a change in the structure of the respiratory cycle:

• hold your breath while inhaling or exhaling;
• prolongation of inhalation or exhalation;
• by inhalation into the upper, lower or middle part of the chest.

Rehabilitation after acute bronchitis with a purulent component includes drainage exercises, which depend on the location of the inflammatory focus:

1. With the defeat of the upper lobe of the lung, the patient sits on a chair, raising his hand from the affected side. It is necessary to tilt the body in the opposite direction and turn the body forward, clearing your throat. Relatives simultaneously press on the ribs from the affected side.
2. With the accumulation of exudate in the upper lobe of the patient, the patient is laid so that the head and shoulders are 25-30 cm lower from the rest of the body on a healthy side. The arm on the affected side is raised. Take a breath, as you exhale, turn on your stomach, clearing your throat. The relative presses on the upper part of the chest from the back.
3. When draining the middle lobe, the legs are elevated. On exhalation, the relative presses on the ribs, and the patient turns to the healthy side and raises the upper part of the body. When separating sputum, the relative continues to press on the ribs. The exercise is repeated with a minute break 3 times.
4. When the lower lobes are released, the patient is placed with raised legs, hands can hang from the floor. The relative presses the lower part of the ribs as you exhale. The patient takes his hand away from the affected side, rolls over to the unaffected side. On exhalation, it comes back with a cough. You can perform tapping on the ribs, lying on the unaffected side.

On an outpatient basis, chest massage is performed to separate sputum and relax muscles. Physiotherapeutic agents include phototherapy, laser therapy, magnetotherapy, inductothermy. Completely restore the bronchi after bronchitis in adults can only be dosed physiotherapy exercises, walking and regular physical activity.

General tonic for the body

Complete rehabilitation therapy after bronchitis provides for an increase in immunity. In the treatment of the disease, phytotherapy is of secondary importance, but is actively used in rehabilitation.

In order to correct immunity, decoctions of the following herbs are prepared:

• lemon balm;
• echinacea;
• ginseng;
• field horsetail;
• Schisandra chinensis;
• licorice;
• eleutherococcus.

A tablespoon of raw materials is poured with a glass of boiling water, insisted for 4 hours. Divided into 2-3 doses with a multiple number of doses throughout the day. The course of therapy is a month.

After treating bronchitis with antibiotics, it is imperative to support the liver with natural means: Hepatophyte, milk thistle oil, artichoke. To remove toxic products, use Polysorb preparations for 14 days, and after taking them - probiotics.

To restore the body after bronchitis, you need to remove the consequences of severe coughing attacks - a spasm of the muscles of the neck. Stretch the scalene muscles by pulling the collarbone down and tilting the head to the opposite side and back.

Features of bronchial asthma

Recovery from bronchitis with an asthmatic component occurs during remission, when there is no influence of an irritant that provokes an attack. Exercise is sometimes a trigger for coughing and is therefore not recommended for all patients. Acupuncture helps to ease breathing:

1. A point on the back, 2 cm from the spinous process of the vertebra, approximately at the level of the middle of the scapula. It is necessary to press on the point on the left, then on the right for a minute.
2. Press on the points under the collarbones in the place of the fossa - stimulation continue for one minute.
3. Press on a point in the center of the collarbone and directly below it (subclavian muscle), while relaxing the neck.
4. Put your thumb on the point on the crook of your wrist, and your index finger on the area between the thumb and forefinger. Stimulate the point on the left hand for a minute, then on the right.

In asthmatic bronchitis, one should learn diaphragmatic breathing, massage the inner surface of the ear cartilages to reduce the excitability of the sympathetic nervous system.

Features of rehabilitation in old age

Elderly and senile people are predisposed to the development of chronic obstructive disease, since the bronchopulmonary system changes function with age. An increase in the number of goblet cells leads to the production of thick mucus. At the same time, its removal from the bronchi is difficult due to a decrease in local immunity - mucociliary clearance. The cilia of the ciliary cells, due to the fluctuations of which the mucus is evacuated, become less functional with age. With relapses of diseases, drug therapy is needed, since it is difficult for an elderly person to recover from bronchitis. Additionally, in old age, diseases of the cardiovascular system, digestion, excretory system, foci of chronic infections that affect the bronchi develop.

The use of fenspiride for three months reduces shortness of breath, cough severity and sputum volume. Increased forced expiratory volume - lung function. Then dosed physical activity, postural drainage and walking are introduced.

Recovery from obstructive bronchitis in adults

The starting factor of the pathology is often smoking, which should be gradually abandoned in order to restore the bronchi after bronchitis. Inflammation provoked by cigarette smoke leads to a spasm of the respiratory muscles.

Airway obstruction disrupts gas exchange and respiratory mechanics, resulting in strain on the musculoskeletal system. Physiotherapy helps to recover from illness, maintain posture, and avoid relapses.

The technique of autogenous drainage allows you to clear the bronchi and lungs from sputum. First you need to clear your throat and nose - cough, blow your nose. Practice diaphragmatic breathing with the expansion of the ribs to the sides. Perform chest stretching exercises:

1. In the doorway, spread your arms, sag, stretching the pectoral muscles for 30 seconds.
2. Put a small pillow under the healthy side (relative to the lesion in the bronchi) and lie on your side, raising your hand as high as possible until the ribs are stretched. Lie down for 30 seconds.
3. Sitting on a chair, rest your hands on the seat at the back and bend, stretching the chest in front. Hold the position for 30 seconds.

Next, the autogenous breathing technique is performed:

1. Choose a position in which the area with the localization of the inflammatory process will breathe: sitting, lying on its side, lying down.
2. Inhale slowly through the nose without closing the mouth to eliminate paradoxical breathing (tension of the abdominal wall) and to better distribute the air.
3. Hold your breath for 2-4 seconds without closing your mouth, try to stop the respiratory movement with the expansion of the chest in all directions.
4. Exhale through the nose quickly, but not abruptly, to prevent constriction of the airways and coughing.
5. Place your hand on your chest to determine the vibration of the sputum. Adjust the frequency and volume of breathing to enhance her movement.
6. Breathe until the mucus begins to rise. In this case, the volume of inhalation will increase each time.
7. Cough up sputum that has entered the trachea.

If the abdominal wall is depressed during inhalation, then you need to put your hand on the lower ribs, forcing the abdominal muscles to relax on inspiration.

Active recovery from bronchitis in adults should be accompanied by cardiovascular training - daily walking at a slow pace with a gradual increase in the length of the route.

conclusions

The tasks of rehabilitation after bronchitis in adults are to improve pulmonary ventilation, namely, the vital capacity of the lungs. This indicator is measured using spirometry, and it is associated with the occurrence of shortness of breath after the disease. The recovery rate directly depends on breathing, oxygen saturation with blood. Therefore, exercise is an important part of rehabilitation.