15. February 2014 · Comments Off on Pneumonia Treatments and Drugs · Categories: Acupuncture · Tags:

The mode of treatment for pneumonia is based on the severity of your pneumonia and the type of pneumonia you possess. The most common type of pneumonia is community-acquired pneumonia and is usually taken care of at home.

The aims of pneumonia treatment are to foil any rise of complications and to cure the pneumonia.

General Treatment

General treatment procedures for pneumonia is to stay on the prescribed treatment plan, use all medications prescribed by your doctor and avail of your current medical care.  The doctor should inform you of necessary followup care. Followup care may entail a chest x-ray to determine if the pneumonia is gone.

Even if you may begin to feel much better after some days or weeks, some feelings of tiredness can still linger on for a month or more. Patients hospitalized with pneumonia may require a minimum of three weeks before they can return to their usual activities.

Bacterial Pneumonia

Antibiotics are the main treatment course prescribed by doctors for bacterial pneumonia.  Antibiotics treatment may take about a couple of weeks but you will start to feel better after only a few days.  You need to complete your antibiotics therapy as prescribed by your doctor to prevent the bacteria from developing resistance to the antibiotics. Stopping too soon, may make the pneumonia come back as well. After one to three days of taking antibiotics the patient will begin to feel much better and symptoms of fever and cough will disappear or considerably lessen.

Viral Pneumonia

In viral pneumonia, only antiviral drugs can treat this condition.  Antibiotics will not work. This condition often improves in about a week to three weeks.

Treating Severe Symptoms

Hospitalization may be required if the patient:

  • Exhibits severe symptoms
  • Is at high risk for complications due to other pre-existing health conditions

You may be forced to get oxygen therapy if the oxygen level in your blood is too low.  If you’re bacterial pneumonia is serious, the doctor may feed antibiotics to your body through an intravenous tube inserted into your vein.

Alternative Treatments

  • Pleurisy root – This is a herb used by Native Americans to treat various lung infections was used by Native American tribes as a herbal remedy for many infections of the lung. It was even included as a bona fide medicine in the United States Pharmacopoeia till 1905.
  • Traditional Chinese Medicine – TCM utilizing Chinese herbs (banxia houpo tang and xie bai san) along with acupuncture has been shown to be very effective in curing childhood pneumonia.
  • Hydrogen peroxide – This treatment entails injecting hydrogen peroxide into the veins of the patient.  Its efficacy was proven when in 1919 all efforts to treat British soldiers based in India dying of pneumonia failed. When hydrogen peroxide injection was tried the surviving soldiers slowly recovered and gained full complete recovery after three weeks.
  • Cayenne pepper – This herb has a powerful antimicrobial ingredient strong enough to treat infections like pneumonia.
  • Bromelain – Oral intake of bromelain is shown to lessen the pus-like features and volume of sputum of patients with lung infections like pneumonia.
  • Other herbal preparations – The following herbs contain berberine, an effective treatment for bacterial infection:
    • Goldenseal
    • Oregon grape root
    • Barberry root bark
  • Manuka honey – Has powerful antibacterial properties.
  • Lactobacillus probiotics – A powerful natural antibiotic preparation that treats respiratory infections in children

Jamie Catlett is a board certified and licensed acupuncturist and the founder of Jacksonville Acupuncture Clinic in Jacksoville, FL.

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