How to treat (and prevent) pneumonia at home

Pneumonia has many different causes, and therefore many different treatment plans. If you contract this nasty infection, here are some suggestions for treating it at home (and preventing it from coming back).

• Unless your doctor wants you hospitalized, by far your best plan is to rest in bed and take your medication, and you'll likely feel better within a few days
• For several days or weeks after that, you may still cough and feel more tired than usual, but in most cases your lungs will end up as good as new
• However, certain patients, especially heavy smokers or the chronically ill, may take months to recover fully. Four to six weeks after treatment, see your doctor for a follow-up visit to make sure the entire episode is history
• If you are at home, be on the alert for any of the following: a fever that reaches 40°C (104°F), difficulty breathing, a rapid pulse rate (125 beats a minute or faster), a drop in blood pressure that makes you feel dizzy or bluish skin. These are signs of a severe infection, and you should go to an emergency room right away

• If you're having trouble breathing, your doctor may give you supplemental oxygen through a face mask or nose tube
• Fortunately, only in rare instances does someone with pneumonia require a mechanical ventilator, a machine that assists breathing
• The only complication of pneumonia requiring a surgical procedure occurs when fluid builds up in the area between your lungs and your chest wall (the pleural space). If this happens, your doctor may perform a procedure called a thoracentesis, in which a needle is inserted through your chest wall and the fluid is drained so that you can breathe more easily

To help your body to recover as quickly as possible from pneumonia:

• Rest in bed until your fever disappears
• Drink lots of fluids — at least eight glasses of water or other liquids per day to help thin mucus
• Do steam inhalation. This and other techniques to loosen lung secretions are very effective
• Use a heating pad on your chest for 10 minutes at a time, as needed; make sure it’s on a low setting

Getting pneumonia may give you immunity to one strain of micro­organism, but there are hundreds more out there that can still attack. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help prevent reinfection with pneumonia (or with colds and flu that can lead to pneumonia) and reduce its severity if you do contract it. Follow some common sense guidelines:

• Eat a nutritious diet
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Exercise regularly
• Get the sleep you need
• Wash your hands frequently
• Stay away from cigarettes

Because pneumonia has so many different causes, there are various ways to treat it. Fortunately, up to 75 percent of cases can be dealt with at home.