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What Is Chest Congestion?

Chest congestion is a critical condition caused due to accumulation of unwanted mucus/cough/phlegm inside the lungs. The individuals, affected from chest congestion experience, a chest pain on the left side or right side of body and a wheezing sound with each of their breaths. Arbitrarily-formed fluid or mucus inside the lungs causes a problem of breath by not providing sufficient passage to the air inhaled and exhaled. Such condition exerts a vigorous pressure within the lungs causing in this way an irritating rattling sound of breath and severe pain within the chest.

Individuals feeling chest congestion complain of cough, severe chest-pain and difficulty in breathing. An individual suffering from chest congestion can easily be identified with some fathomable symptoms like whistling breath, cough and pain within the chest. Though chances of some other reasons contributing in causing the chest congestion can’t be ruled, major reasons of chest congestion problem are post-nasal drip, bronchitis or pneumonia.

People affected from chest congestion complication should not allow the symptoms to exacerbate beyond and take prompt action on time to deal with the problem. Any apathy on a part of affected individual can exacerbate the lung choking disease beyond, turning it into a chronic problem to cope with. Initial chest congestion problem can be solved with some effective home remedies while the worsened off condition requires a quick medical attention. Individuals suffering from chest congestion should take the problem seriously before it’s too late. Diagnosis and timely treatment help the person get rid of chest congestion problem like crackling sound in breath, chest pain and cough.

Causes of chest congestion

As has been revealed earlier in this article, some bacterial and viral diseases like post nasal drip, bronchitis, and pneumonia are the main contributors of chest congestion. Post nasal drip is a problem emerging due to large amount of fluid mucus getting accumulated behind individual’s throat.The fluid mucus considered to be too conspicuous for the body as a protein if comes across bacterial onslaught, it causes abruptly bad smell inside the mouth and many other oral complications. If such types of fluid mucus reaches into the lungs, the problem of chest congestion develops causing severe chest pain and gasping to the affected person. Being an allergic problem, the post nasal drip should be treated with expectorants or phlegm treating medicines. In post nasal drip-caused chest congestion the anti-allergic medicines are administered to the affected person in order to provide a relief from existing chest-pain, choking-breath and crackling sound of breath.

Another cause of chest congestion is the bronchitis, notorious for causing inflammatory pain over the linings of bronchial tubes. Let’s us find out how bronchitis problem erupts. It is the respiratory infection, caused by bacteria, which develops bronchitis problem. Besides, cold virus also develops bronchitis, causing chest-congestion, breathing problem and wheezing sound during inhaling and exhaling the air.

The Bronchitis can be identified through prima facie observation by green color sputum of the affected person. If the chest congestion is diagnosed as bronchitis, caused by bacterial infection, the problem can be solved with some antibiotics prescribed by the doctor. Once the effective medicines are administered to a person, all the remaining complications like coughing, difficulty in breathing and irritating whistling disappear within shortest span of time. Though bronchitis has got to go away within a day or two with the administration of effective antibiotics, in critical cases it may take a long time depending upon the problem’s gravity and the sustainability of the affected person. Let it be mentioned over here that viral bronchitis can’t be controlled with the antibiotic medicines as viral bronchitis requires symptomatic or characteristic treatment.

If the chest congestion problem is not diagnosed as post nasal drip or bronchitis,another cause of such problem is supposed to be the pneumonia. Emerging as infectious disease the pneumonia is caused due to bacterial infection, viral infection or fungal infection. Exhibiting same symptoms similar to flu, the pneumonia causes fever, aches, loss of appetite and chest congestion. Severity of the chest pain caused by pneumonia depends upon the exacerbation of coughing complication. In pneumonia the sputum of affected person may bear some blood which calls for a quick medical attention.The doctor conducts X-Ray test of chest to diagnose pneumonia. If the pneumonia is found to have been caused by bacteria, antibiotic drugs are administered, while in fungal pneumonia only anti fungal drugs are prescribed. If the viral infection is found to be the main reason of chest congestion after the examination, the doctor allows the viral infection to complete its cycle. It only after the completion of specific period the viral infection ends. But in the meantime some relief medicines can be prescribed for lessening the pain within the chest and difficulty in breathing.

Test & Treatment

Some rudimentary tests are conducted upon the patient suffering from chest congestion. During such initial examinations the doctor inquires the level of blood oxygen. According to medical experts the people suffering from chest congestion or any other related problem should have appropriate amount of blood oxygen in their blood as the oxygen provides the body a great immunity against onslaught of bacterial or viral infections. Following the blood test if the oxygen in the blood is found less than 95%, the patient is admitted in the hospital and complete bed rest and proper treatments are called for. But if the oxygen in blood is enough the patient is permitted to go home with some prescriptive medicines. The medicines prescribed by the doctor aim at thinning the mucus much faster so as to let it go out of patient’s lungs where it might have caused severe chest congestion.

Some patents go for over-the-counter medicines in order to get rid of chest congestion. But let me make it clear that over-the-counter medicines sold as cough controlling drugs fail to serve the purpose by making the fluid mucus thicker. Such medicines are known as suppressants and should not be taken by the sufferer. These medicines are administered to dry coughs only which can’t be helpful in providing relief from chest congestion. The individuals, affected from chest congestion, should have only expectorant medicines which, instead of causing fluid mucus or phlegm to get harder and stay within the lungs, removes them effectively. In simple words, expectorant medicines allow the mucus to pass out from lungs easily and quickly providing faster relief to the affected person.

Generally the doctors treating chest congestion press into service Albuterol inhaler, known as bronchial dilator. Plenty of fresh air is pumped into the lungs through such medical equipment helping the person have fresh breath conveniently. You should never delay in consulting a doctor if you notice loud wheezing noise of your breath irritating the surrounding people.

Home treatments

• Drink plenty of water- The water hydrates your body and renders mucus too thin to pass out from the lungs easily. Maximum number of people fearing that water is likely to worsen off their chest congestion hardly drinks the water which in turn lets the mucus stay inside their lungs and keeps their problem live for long.
• Sleep with a posture which should not allow the mucus to get stored within your lungs.
• Have steam shower as it is the best way to deal with infection-caused chest congestion and pain.
• Drink tea made of honey, lemon and ginger.
• Chew salt-mixed raw ginger- Though it may taste much bitter, it has got to thin the mucus much faster and provide you a greater relief.

Remarkable– Consult the doctor if…

• Your sputum becomes red or dark yellow.
• You feel a shiver and fever followed by chest pain.
• You feel a difficulty in breathing.
• The chest congestion looks akin to tightness in the chest as it can be the symptom of asthma.