What causes bronchitis?

Bronchitis refers to a chronic nonspecific disease of the trachea, bronchial mucosa and surrounding tissues. In fact, many people are troubled by bronchitis in life, especially chronic bronchitis, which is a long-term torture for patients. Do you know what causes bronchitis? Now let’s learn about the causes of bronchitis. I hope everyone can pay attention to it.

The most obvious symptom of bronchitis is coughing and expectoration, which recurs repeatedly and cannot be cured for a long time. It is precisely because of this that it brings great physical and mental torture to patients. Therefore, we need to understand the causes of bronchitis so that we can treat it correctly.

1. Smoking: It is the main factor causing this disease. Cigarettes contain chemical substances such as tar, nicotine and hydrocyanic acid, which can damage airway epithelial cells, reduce ciliary movement and macrophage phagocytic function, and lead to decreased airway purification function.

2. Infection: Infection is one of the important factors in the occurrence and development of chronic bronchitis. Viral, mycoplasma and bacterial infections are the main causes of acute attacks of this disease.

3. Air pollution: Harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, chlorine and ozone have irritating and cytotoxic effects on the airway mucosal epithelium. It is reported that when the smoke or sulfur dioxide in the air exceeds 1000μg/m3, the acute attacks of chronic bronchitis increase significantly.

4. Allergy: Most patients with asthmatic chronic bronchitis have a history of allergies, but some people also believe that atopy should be a contributing factor to asthma. In fact, these patients should be classified as having asthma or chronic bronchitis combined with asthma.

5. Climate: Cold air can stimulate glands to secrete more mucus and weaken ciliary movement, thereby weakening the airway's defense function. It can also cause bronchial smooth muscle spasm, mucosal vasoconstriction, and local blood circulation disorders through reflex, which is conducive to secondary infection. Most patients with this disease have autonomic dysfunction, and some patients have hyperfunction of the parasympathetic nervous system and higher airway responsiveness than normal people.

Through the above introduction, we find that there are many causes of bronchitis. Some viral infections in daily life, frequent allergies, and even climate changes may lead to the occurrence of bronchitis, so care in life is particularly important.