CHRONIC BRONCHITIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1723, 9 June 1917, Page 1

CHRONIC BRONCHITIS.

During the autumn and winter months in particular guile a considerable proportion of people, especially (hose past middle age, suffer from varying degrees of bronchitis. Many id! these chronic or repetetive illnesses are (he result of previous attacks of acute bronchitis, though very often they are due to unhealthy occupations or unhealthy environment at home. Chronic bronchitis thus is much more common among people who live in crowded industrial districts than it is among those whose, home conditions arc more spacious and generally wholesome. There is also, undoubtedly, a hereditary tendency to this condition of the bronchial tubes, though even among families with this tendency an immediately irritating cause is also necessary. The commonest form of chronic bronchitis is accompanied with a moderate amount of secretion, which is expelled by coughing, with more or less dilliculty. But there is also a form in which there is very little secretion, the cough having a violent, and irritating character. The extremely unpleasant form of bronchitis known as bronchiectasis can hardly be considered as a distinct form, rather as an advanced form of (he first of the two forms named above. Bronchiectasis is a very distressing condition, consisting as it does in the formation of a kind of sacks or cavities, owing to the dilation of the bronchial tubes in places. The result being that the secretion accumulates and lies about in these cavities until it decomposes, causing an almost unendurable foetor both in the expectoration and in the breath. In the slight forms of bronchitis which are almost habitual with some people every winter little medical treatment is needed.' The general health should be kept 'at as high a, point as possible, and warm clothing, warm well-ventilated rooms, a dry climate, suitable food, and exercise are better than drugs for this purpose. Constipation should be avoided. In the graver cases inhalations and sprays of various antiseptics, together with the use of some of the many “expectorant” mixtures, are usually prescribed. Sudden changes of temperature should be avoided by bronchitic patients, and very cold, cutting winds, mist, and fog are all detrimental.