What is a respiratory condition?
A respiratory condition is any condition that affects one or more components of your respiratory system. This includes all the different parts of your body that help you breathe, including bronchi, lungs, pharynx, larynx, and trachea.
What are the different types of respiratory conditions?
There’s a very long list of respiratory conditions, which includes:
Obstructive respiratory conditions
The most common class of respiratory conditions, obstructive respiratory conditions are those that interfere with normal breathing like asthma, bronchitis, COPD, and emphysema.
Vascular respiratory conditions
Vascular respiratory conditions are those that affect the blood vessels in and around your respiratory system. Examples include pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary edema.
Restrictive respiratory conditions
Restrictive respiratory conditions prevent your respiratory system from normal functioning, such as cystic fibrosis and sarcoidosis.
Infectious or environmental respiratory conditions
This category of respiratory conditions includes both infectious diseases like influenza and diseases related to irritants in your environment, such as asbestos-related disease.
Some types of respiratory disease may fit into two categories. For example, some types of bronchitis, an obstructive condition, are also infectious.
How do you diagnose respiratory conditions?
At Millennium Park Medical Associates, your diagnosis starts with a discussion about your symptoms. Dr. Khan examines you and evaluates symptoms like cough, breathing difficulties, and fever to determine a preliminary diagnosis.
You may need a nose swab, throat swab, blood tests, lung function tests, chest X-rays, electrocardiogram (EKG), or other tests to verify the origin of your respiratory condition so Dr. Khan can prescribe the ideal treatment.
What is the treatment for respiratory conditions?
Respiratory condition treatments vary considerably since each of the many different respiratory illnesses is different from the next. Depending on the root cause of your illness, you may need to simply rest and regain your strength at home.
If you have a bacterial infection, antibiotics can help you feel better quite quickly, and antivirals may help with viral infections depending on the situation.
For some types of respiratory conditions, you may need drugs like steroids to reduce inflammation. Bronchodilators can open up your lung passages to help you breathe.
There are also many other approaches to respiratory illness, including lifestyle changes like quitting smoking and exercising more.
Get respiratory illness help now by calling Millennium Park Medical Associates or clicking the online booking tool.
