Scott Webb (Host): If you're like me, you've often wondered if bronchitis and pneumonia are basically the same thing. Well, I'm joined today by Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus. He's a board-certified family medicine physician at Franciscan Health, and he's going to answer that question and many more about bronchitis and pneumonia.

 This is the Franciscan Health Doc Pod. I'm Scott Webb. Doctor, thanks so much for your time today. I've always wanted to ask an expert if bronchitis and pneumonia are the same thing. Like, in my head, I sort of feel like they are at least similar, if not the same thing, but I've got an expert on the line. So, are bronchitis and pneumonia the same thing?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: They're not. They're definitely not. They affect different areas of our airways. sometimes they can feel similar for some people. But for most people, I'd say that they're not. Pneumonia, you'll feel a lot sicker, basically.

Host: All right. So yeah, they're not the same thing. Pneumonia, you're going to probably feel worse. Let's talk about the symptoms because there are some similarities, of course. So, maybe there's some overlapping of symptoms, but what are the symptoms for each?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: A good way of seeing it is bronchitis is like you're having a cold, but instead of on your face, sinuses, it's like a cold on your chest. So, you're going to have a lot of cough with phlegm. You might have some fevers, but it's mostly cough what's most bothersome for people. And you might have some cold symptoms, you know, runny nose, congestion, stuff like that. In pneumonia, you're also going to have a cough, but you're going to be much sicker. You're going to have fever, chills. You might even get out of breath, you might feel winded, you might even get chest pain. You're going to feel a lot sicker.

Host: Yeah, I see what you mean. And you and I were discussing before we got rolling here about exactly when should someone go to maybe urgent care or the ED or to their primary provider. So, let's talk through that then. You know, do folks need to go for bronchitis? When we're thinking about one versus the other or both in general, when should folks reach out and see a provider or, you know, go to the emergency department, something like that?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: Yeah. So, that's a very good question. Very important point. So first of all, you need to know what is your health status? Are you a healthy person? Do you have any lung disease? Now lung disease, that would be stuff like, are you a smoker? Do you have smokers lung? COPD? Do you have asthma? Any issues with your lungs? Do you have any conditions that make your immune system weaker like cancer? Are you any strong? Medications for autoimmune diseases. If you do have lung disease or a weak immune system, then basically your threshold to contact a provider should be a little bit lower. So, what this means is that if you have any lung disease, weakened immune system, and you're getting some fevers, shortness of breath, you should definitely contact your provider as soon as possible or possibly even go to the ED. But if you're just a healthy person that usually you don't have any medical issues or anything, I would probably contact your provider first, okay?

Host: Yeah. Yeah. I see what you mean. And that kind of leads into my next question. I wanted to ask you about, you know, basically are some folks at higher risk, right? So, it sounds like some folks are at higher risk or maybe not higher risk for bronchitis and pneumonia, but higher risk for those things like pneumonia to get really bad for them because of their other, you know, comorbidities, right?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: Yes. So, there are several things that can make you be at higher risk of having pneumonia. These things are, again, lung disease, the smoker's lung, asthma. Also, actually, people that drink alcohol regularly, and just people that smoke, period, that can put you at risk of having pneumonia. People that have multiple chronic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, are also at risk of pneumonia.

Host: Yeah. So, some folks are at higher risk, of course, and some of those things we can control, like smoking, some things we can't. Maybe family history, if that's any sort of factor in here. What are the actual causes of bronchitis and pneumonia? Is it like catching a cold or the flu or something like that? How do we get each of them?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: Yeah. So, bronchitis, the most common cause is just viral illnesses. This is very similar to the same causes of a cold. You probably caught it from somebody or maybe from your kid, parents, family, friends. It's just a cold on your chest. For pneumonia, it's a little bit different. In pneumonia, again, it's more of if you have conditions that could predispose you to have a pneumonia, then you can maybe catch it from somebody that maybe didn't have symptoms. So bronchitis, like really anybody can get it, but a pneumonia more like sicker people are more likely to get it.

Host: I see what you mean. We're maybe immunocompromised. We're already maybe not that well to begin with, so we're more likely to get pneumonia. So, let's say that we've been diagnosed with bronchitis, which sounds more like just a cold that'll run its course, but specifically pneumonia, how do you treat pneumonia?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: All right. So pneumonia is more of a serious thing. Pneumonia, you will need antibiotics. And if you're getting short of breath or you're feeling significantly worse, you might even end up needing to go to the hospital and you might need some breathing treatment.

Host: Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that because, you know, I've heard stories, cases, anecdotally, maybe at best, but certainly folks passing away from pneumonia. So, it sounds like something that can be treated. But when we think about how serious this can be or the sort of complications of untreated pneumonia, you know, what happens? Is it that they're just not seeking medical care early enough? Or is it because of their other preexisting conditions and the pneumonia, it's difficult to treat? Maybe you can explain like how do people pass away from pneumonia?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: Yeah. So, complications. So, pneumonia, again, it's an infection of the lungs. It's usually a bacterial infection of the lungs. The issue with pneumonia when it's not treated or not treated well is that it can cause actual abscesses. of the lung, which are harder to treat. And more than anything, you can have what's called sepsis, a bloodstream infection. The infection can go from the lungs to the bloodstream, and that is something that has a high mortality, especially if you have other conditions. I think the issue with the pneumonia is more, as you said, if somebody already has pre-existing conditions, their body will have a harder time to clear from the pneumonia, and that's probably what will cause like the complications.

Host: Yeah, complications for sure. And so, that's definitely something we want to have treated, right? So, you know, bronchitis, as you're saying, sort of a chest cold, if you will, but pneumonia, if you're at higher risk and you're having the symptoms that you've described today, doctor, it's time to reach out to a provider. If they're really bad, you know, probably go to the ED. But what are the things that we can do to treat these things on our own, to make us feel better when we've got bronchitis, to perhaps help with pneumonia. What can we do to help ourselves, I guess?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: All right. For both, one of the things we can do is, if there's anybody smoking in the house, please tell them to smoke out of the house. Exposure to smoke or environmental toxins will worsen both. If your job has exposure to fumes such as construction work, engineering plants, you should likely get reasonable accommodation from that to avoid getting that exposure because it'll worsen your symptoms. So, that is something that's, you know, under control that you can maybe work on that.

Host: Yeah. So, some things we can do, of course. As I said, this has been really educational today. Just want to give you a chance here at the end, final thoughts, takeaways. You know, I was explaining to you, like who listens to these things and why they listen. And my goal is always obviously for me to learn, for listeners to learn, and also then really to encourage folks to reach out to their providers or go to the ED if it's that serious. So in your words, final thoughts, takeaways about how do we do that? How do we get folks who aren't feeling well to go to the doctor?

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: So, it's important to know when is the best to go to the doctor, but also when you maybe don't need to go to the doctor. So if you're healthy and you're starting to get a cold or you're starting to get this bad cough with some fevers, please you don't need to go to the doctor. Wait it out. Wait at least for one week. If you start getting worse or you don't get better after about a week, contact your doctor. You don't even need to see the doctor directly because a lot of times the treatments for these things are treatments you can get at a pharmacy, okay? Your own body will usually clear itself from these kinds of conditions. However, If you do have lung disease, again, smoker's lung, COPD, asthma, and you do start getting this cough, you should definitely contact your provider because you might benefit from some prescribed treatment. And of course, if you develop any chills, shortness of breath, feeling winded, chest pains, then you should go to the ER, especially if you have pre-existing lung disease, asthma or cancer, any conditions that weaken your immune system.

Host: Hopefully, listeners had the same reaction that I did today, which is this is good information and good inspiration if we're not feeling well and we have those conditions. So, doctor, thanks so much. You stay well.

Dr. Omar Acevedo Arus: Absolutely. Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me.

Host: And for more information, visit franciscanhealth.org and search bronchitis and pneumonia. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. And be sure to check out the full podcast library for additional topics of interest. This is the Franciscan Health Doc Pod. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well, and we'll talk again next time.