Pneumonia
chisue
9 years ago
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tami_ohio
9 years agoalisande
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Pneumonia Home Remedies
Comments (3)I suppose if one were in an isolated area with no access to modern medicine it might be necessary to fall back on home remedies for pneumonia, but that is probably what killed so many so soon in the days before modern medicine. Some illnesses are so severe, and move so rapidly, that traditional treatments do not have the strength to work. I have always considered pneumonia to be one of those. Essentially, the way I picture it, you have a concentrated ball of microorganisms rapidly doubling in quantity, and something has to be done to stop that fairly quickly before it kills you. Even today and hospitalized, many elderly still die of it. Traditional herbal treatments often cannot be safely taken in massive doses because they have not been treated by modern processes to remove any non-therapeutic constituents that could be harmful. There probably are remedies that could be taken to help ward off pneumonia, before a lung infection actually developed to the point it could be called that, but I don't know what they would be. I know the buds of forsythia have some antibiotic quality, but the Chinese grow a special strain in which that characteristic is stronger. There would be no guarantee, in either case, though, that the antibiotic quality of the forsythia buds would kill the harmful bacteria, rather than simply kill off more beneficial ones that might help to keep more lethal bacteria strains at bay. Only a practitioner in the area where the infection was occurring who had practiced on others with the same condition would tend to have this knowledge. Herbal treatment was probably by trial and error in the early days, and later patients probably benefited more than earlier ones during any particular epidemic. My theory is that most epidemics begin in more crowded and less affluent conditions, which would enable the ambitious practitioner to exercise his or her best remedies on the more affluent. Since herbs take more space to grow and store than today's pills, and transportation was also more limited, the average herbalist was probably rather limited in the number of remedies actually on hand. There were probably a few standards (like comfrey, because it grows so large and well in a variety of circumstances) which would be tried for almost every malady, since there was such a good supply of it, and other herbal remedies, which might acutually have been more effective, held in reserve for the very worst cases or the wealthiest clients. Herbs from warmer, or cooler, or dryer, or more humid climates than the practicing herbalist's would have been in short supply in the early days. An herbalist that relocated to an area with a different climate, for any reason, would have initially been able to bring a supply of his or her own remedies along, but would soon have needed to resupply with remedies that could grow in the new area, or which were obtainable through reliable trade with other areas. Even for conditions which the herbalist knew how to treat effectively, many probably died because of insufficient supplies of herbs or lack of anything to pay for treatment. All of that, again, would have resulted in those who had the knowledge and resources to do so, growing or gathering their own herbs where possible. It is possible that monks and nuns might have shared clones of valuable plants with parish priests, who then could pass offsets on to parishioners, but I don't know if anyone has documentation of that. Possibly, on pilgrimages, people also were on the lookout for curative plants that could be brought home....See MoreHelp Pneumonia!!
Comments (4)Antibiotics will be helpful if you have bacterial pneumonia, and, obviously, you should take them. Antiviral drugs are effective on some viruses, but not most. But nothing is more important than rest. It shocked me how fatigued I was when I had pneumonia, and how many weeks it lasted. Sleep whenever you can. Tell people you're ill and that you need to take care of yourself. Drink lots and lots of liquids - it's easy to get dehydrated. One thing that helped me a lot were chest treatments (not sure what they're called). My neighbor, who was a nurse, did them for me, but they're not difficult. I've done them for family members. Lie on your stomach, and have someone tap on your back and shoulders. The person who taught me used a cupped hand. Not hard, but not too soft. You can do this on your front, too, even by yourself. This helped immensely in breaking up all the gunk in my lungs. Oh, and don't try to suppress your coughing - you need it. Good luck, and I hope you recover soon. Sleep a lot!...See MoreStuck at Home with Pneumonia
Comments (22)Hey! Me too! I've never had pneumonia before, but have had chronic sinutitis and asthma for 30 years. Ten days ago I was coughing so hard that I went to a doctor here on Maui. At that moment I had no fever. She lent me a nebulizer and gave me a prescription for the albuterol to use in it, plus one for prednisone. (60 mg for three days; 40 for three; twenty for three.) That night I ran a fever -- back to the office next morning with 101.7. Now I got a prescription for Biactin. Cough continues without producing anything. Call to office results in a cough syrup -- but not the right one as it turned out; needed something stronger (with hydrocodone). Neulizer does zip for me. Back to the MD. Chest X-ray. Diagnosis bacterial pneumonia. Pushed up the tapering prednisone again to 60 mg and added an albuterol inhaler. Finally this morning I was able to bring up a little of the yuck in my lungs. Light at the end of the tunnel? No, DH comes down with heavy chest cold and is a lump on the sofa -- no fever, just weary. We go to Honolulu Mar. 1 to catch Mar. 2 flight to Chicago. I still have to pack up stuff in owner's storage before our regular March guests arrive. Any Get-Well tips gratefully received. (No hitting, though.)...See MoreHey! Ds is not just lazy; he has pneumonia!
Comments (3)Thanks, suzie, he is 11. I don't think it's life-threatening or anything, it has just left him sort of tired and run-down. The good thing is, he is a kid and has more free time than us to rest and recover....See Moreprairie_rose
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