Bath in bronchitis: to wash or to treat?

If you think that you can go to a bathhouse if you have inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the lower airways of the respiratory system, that is, if you have bronchitis, keep in mind that the conditions in a regular 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. Given this, many questions arise, in particular: is it advisable to visit a bathhouse with bronchitis, and also - is it possible to go to a bathhouse with bronchitis?

Is it possible to visit a sauna if you have bronchitis?

Let us note right away: there is no clear answer to these questions, although traditionally, many consider the bathhouse useful for some diseases not associated with inflammation. And this factor is decisive when it comes to whether the bathhouse is useful for bronchitis.

A bathhouse is definitely contraindicated in the treatment of bronchitis when the disease is in full swing and is accompanied by elevated body temperature and fever. This symptom is observed in bronchitis of bacterial or viral etiology, and most often children suffer from infectious bronchitis - with attacks of severe coughing, retrosternal wheezing and shortness of breath. Thus, a bathhouse for acute bronchitis cannot be a method of its treatment. A bathhouse for bronchitis in a young child is also absolutely excluded - due to the incomplete process of formation of the thermoregulation system.

In the acute form of the disease, especially when the coughed up sputum is thick, a bath for bronchitis in adults is also not recommended.

The question of whether it is possible to go to a bathhouse with obstructive bronchitis requires a separate explanation. So, a bathhouse with obstructive bronchitis in adults and children, as well as with asthmatic bronchitis, is included in the list of contraindicated procedures. And the reason is in the increased humidity and air temperature, at which the production of mucous secretion of the bronchi increases, it thickens, and there is a risk of edema and obstruction.

Bath for bronchitis: good or bad

And yet, is it possible to go to a bathhouse with bronchitis? To clarify what outweighs when you decide to visit a bathhouse with bronchitis: benefit or harm, let's remember the benefit of blood flow to the tissues of the respiratory tract in their diseases.

This is the argument used by supporters of the opinion that it is possible to go to the bathhouse with bronchitis, as it improves the condition of the ciliary (flickering) epithelium of the bronchi, helps restore its functions and facilitate the expectoration of sputum. But all of the above should be the result of locally acting procedures and can be achieved at home if you do inhalations correctly for bronchitis. Massage also helps well with bronchitis in adults and children.

However, let's return to the bathhouse as a procedure for total heating of the entire body, including the physiological fluids present in the body. Does the bathhouse help with bronchitis?

Indeed, hyperemia of the skin during bath procedures is a clear sign of capillary dilation and increased blood microcirculation. The ability of elevated blood temperature 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 is known. At their “command”, the smallest vessels of the capillary network of the skin dilate, and the body, releasing more heat, is freed from its “excess”. This is how thermoregulation occurs.

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

Moreover, since we lose water and salts with sweat, a temporary disruption of the water-electrolyte balance in the body is observed. At the same time, breathing - in order to cool the body by additional evaporation of moisture - becomes more frequent, but this does not work while you are in the bath. Shortness of breath appears.

And this explains why pulmonologists do not recommend a sauna for chronic bronchitis, the symptoms of which include shortness of breath and respiratory failure, leading to a decrease in blood oxygenation (saturation with oxygen).

Are there any other physiological changes during bath procedures? Water loss leads to an increase in blood plasma viscosity, and to ensure normal blood flow, the heart muscle has to work in an enhanced mode. The pulse jumps from a normal 60-70 beats per minute to 115-135, and a pulse rate of 90 beats per minute is defined as tachycardia.

The vascular system is subject to this tension, but the main blood flow is redirected to the superficial parts of the body and the skin (as a thermoregulatory organ), while the blood flow to the internal organs and brain is reduced. Therefore, do not be surprised if you feel dizzy or have a headache in the bathhouse.

Probably, to the question – is it possible to wash in a bathhouse with bronchitis – bathhouse workers will answer affirmatively. But it is not worth treating it in a bathhouse.

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