Bath at a bronchitis: to wash or be treated?

If you believe that with inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the lower airways of the respiratory system, that is, with bronchitis, you can go to the bath, then keep in mind: conditions in a conventional steam room are considered extreme even for a healthy person.

Thus, the average air temperature in the steam room exceeds + 70 ° C, and the humidity level is 90% or more. Considering this, many questions arise, in particular: is it advisable to visit a bath with bronchitis, and also - can I go to a bath with bronchitis?

Is it possible to visit the bath with bronchitis?

We note at once: there is no clear answer to these questions, although by tradition, many consider the bath useful for certain diseases not related to inflammation. And this factor is decisive when it comes to whether the bath is useful for bronchitis.

Uniquely contraindicated bath in the treatment of bronchitis, when the disease is in full swing and is accompanied by fever and fever. Such a symptom is observed with bronchitis of bacterial or viral etiology, and most often infectious bronchitis - with bouts of severe cough, vaginal rhonchuses and dyspnea - children are ill. Thus, a bath with acute bronchitis can not be a method of its treatment. Absolutely excluded and the bath with bronchitis in a child of younger age - in connection with the incomplete process of forming a system of thermoregulation.

In acute forms of the disease, especially when the cough is thick, the bath with bronchitis in adults is also not recommended.

A separate explanation requires the question: is it possible in obstructive bronchitis in the bath. So, the bath with  obstructive bronchitis in adults  and children, as well as with bronchitis asthmatic is included in the list of contraindicated procedures. And the reason - in the increased humidity and air temperature, which increases the production of mucous secretions of the bronchi, it thickens, and there is a threat of swelling and obturation.

Bath with bronchitis: good or bad

And yet, is it possible to steam in a bath with bronchitis? To clarify what is outweighed, when you decide to visit a bath with bronchitis: benefit or harm, we recall the benefits of blood flow to the tissues of the respiratory tract in their diseases.

This argument is supported by the supporters of the opinion that it is possible to go to the bath with bronchitis, as this improves the condition of the ciliary epithelium of the bronchi, helps restore its functions and facilitate the coughing up of sputum. But all of the above should be the result of locally acting procedures and can be achieved at home, if it is proper to do  inhalation with bronchitis. Massage with bronchitis in adults and children also helps  .

However, let us return to the bath, as a procedure for total heating of the whole body, including physiological fluids in the body. Does bath help with bronchitis?

Indeed, skin hyperemia with bath procedures is a clear sign of capillary expansion and increased blood microcirculation. The ability of increased blood temperature is known to stimulate the generation of nerve impulses by the hypothalamus and the activating effect of these impulses on the cardiovascular centers of the medulla oblongata. According to their "team", the smallest vessels of the capillary network of the skin expand, and the body, releasing more heat, is freed from its "surplus". So there is a thermoregulation.

Excessive humidity in combination with a high temperature increases sweating, and this physiologically conditioned reaction of the body (aimed at maintaining thermal homeostasis) is also part of the thermoregulation. But at a very high humidity level, sweat does not evaporate, and the heat transfer process is blocked. Therefore, a bath with bronchitis in adults can cause weakness, indicating a sharp decrease in the adaptive capacity of the body, based on compensatory-adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system.

Moreover, since with the later we lose water and salt, there is a temporary  disturbance of the water-electrolyte balance  in the body. At the same time, breathing - to cool the body by additional moisture evaporation - becomes more frequent, but this, while you are in the bath, does not work. Appears shortness of breath.

And this explains why pulmonologists do not recommend a bath with chronic bronchitis, among the symptoms of which are shortness of breath and lack of breathing, leading to a decrease in oxygenation of the blood (oxygen saturation).

Are there any other physiological changes during bathing procedures? Loss of water leads to an increase in the viscosity of blood plasma, and to ensure normal blood flow to the heart muscle must work in a strengthened mode. Pulse from normal 60-70 beats per minute jumps to 115-135, and the pulse rate of 90 beats per minute is defined as tachycardia.

The vascular system transfers this voltage, but the main blood flow is redirected to the surface parts of the body and the skin (as a thermoregulatory organ), but the blood supply to internal organs and the brain is reduced. So do not be surprised if you feel dizzy or headache in the bath.

Probably, to the question - whether it is possible to wash in a bath with bronchitis - the workers of baths will answer in the affirmative. But here it is not necessary to treat it in a bath.

[1], [2], [3], [4]