LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Bronchitis: Asthma
built 502 days ago
Among 74,072 women, aged 34 to 68 years, 671 cases of newly diagnosed asthma and 798 cases of newly diagnosed chronic bronchitis were identified in 10 years of follow-up. The crude incidence of new-onset chronic bronchitis was highest in current smokers and lowest in never smokers. The relative risk of chronic bronchitis in smokers compared with never smokers increased significantly with increasing number of cigarettes smoked per day, and increased with age. The researchers concluded that rates of chronic bronchitis in smokers are four to five times those in non-smokers.
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Asthma should be considered in patients with repetitive episodes of acute bronchitis. Patients who repeatedly present with cough and wheezing can be given full spirometric testing with bronchodilation or provocative testing with a methacholine challenge test to help differentiate asthma from recurrent bronchitis. Those with findings suggestive of the chronic inflammatory changes that occur in asthma may benefit from chronic anti-inflammatory therapy.
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Cigarette smoking is the most important cause of chronic bronchitis. Troisi and associates, for example, studied the smoking habits of women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study, a large prospective cohort study of American women, to assess the relationship between smoking and the occurrence of chronic bronchitis and asthma.
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Repeated bouts of bronchitis should be taken seriously. They may signal chronic bronchitis, asthma or other lung disorders. Having chronic bronchitis ... increases your risk of lung cancer if you're a smoker or if you're exposed to someone else's tobacco smoke over a long period of time.
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Some cases of asthma are mistaken for chronic bronchitis because cough is the most prominent symptom. Also, since emphysema and lung cancer are ... primarily caused by smoking, that symptoms of chronic bronchitis may indicate that the lung has been irritated by cigarette smoke and that further damage may lead to more serious problems.
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Elecampane is a demulcent that has been used to treat coughs associated with bronchitis, asthma, and whooping cough. Although there have been no modern clinical studies with this herb, its use for these indications is based on its high content of soothing mucilage in the forms of inulin and alantalactone.36 However, the German Commission E monograph for elecampane does not approve the herb for bronchitis.37
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