How can people get chronic airways disease if they do not smoke and are not around people that smoke?

My mother has been diagnosed with chronic airways disease but has never smoked or been around much smoking. She had bronchitis in December and still has a dry cough occasionally which sometimes causes her to wheeze for a few minutes. Is chronic airways disease related to bronchitis. Does it have the same symptoms and will it go away in time?
Answer:
To get Respiratory Diseases you don't need to be a smoker. Everyone can get those diseases, only if you smoke the likelyhood to get such diseases ist higher.

---

Because it just is not true that only smokers get these diseases and it is also not true that all smokers will get sick. My aunt died of lung cancer that spread to her brain. She never smoked a cigarette in her life and was not around anyone who did.
Best wishes to your mom. I hope she gets better!

---

There are several types of COPD that are not related to smoking.Asthma,bronchitis,emph... to name a few.COPD can be managed with medication and inhalation type treatments.Take care. SW RNP

---

With any chronic illness, it has the opportunity of showing up at any susceptible time. Sometimes a bad bout of flu, bronchitis, or pneumonia can lead to permanent tissue scarring in the bronchi and lungs. These scars can cause inflammation, that in turn, helps to produce mucus that irritates the lung. You can get lung disease from any number of things: cotton mills(brown lung), coal mines(black lung), allergy induced asthma, pollution, using wood heaters, kerosine heaters, exhaust, etc.

---

24% to 27% of the people that have lung disease never smoked A few have inherrited it.

---

,,,,,,,,,,,,,senorita linda;;;;chronic airway disease is often aggravated/caused by allergic reaction to ,,,,,,,,,foods,,,,,,,,chemical... mites,,,,,,,mold,,,,pollen,,,,... human body is imbued with 80 000 000 000 immune cells ,they float in your blood,ready like soldiers to deal death dealing cytokines,phagocytoxic gulps to invading bacteria,viruses,,,if they need reinforcements,they tear off a tiny chunk of pathogen tissue ,and carry this to the lymph glands,telling the body to produce a fever,followed by millions off additional white cells(antibodies from bone ,,,b cells ,,,,,or thymus cells,,,,,,t cells).,,,your moms difficulty is cells lining her airways furiously to critters that cause little reaction in other people.docs are prone to giving her an inhaler with immune suppressing drugs( just read the list of side effects)other techniques are to eliminate the items described above.A typical reaction to egg protein(apart from classical airway collapse,shock ,racing heartbeat,etc) is a slow burn bronchial hoarsness %26 slight sore throat starting 4 to 18 hours after eating one egg.the green phlegm indicates some dead antibodies that accumulate in the airway,then are eliminated by cilia,tiny hairs which line the lung %26 windpipe and sweep the phlegm out,suggestion here is to pay careful attention to house cleaning,wood floors instead of carpets,no pets. keep a diary of everything mom eats(noting ingredients,cooking oils additives)clean air conditioning ducts,also use a fine microfilter type filter for the unit.commence to determine if foods are a factor by challenging her ,one food at a time,noting her pulse before and after.( a speeded up pulse means an offending food has produced a system reaction)some items in her diet might be causative in her illness,and finding the culprit could help her improve quite a bit.all this is time consuming and most doctors don't consider this stuff as worthwhile.its my opinion that doctors who don'.t are lazy,exemplary of the other epidemic of addhd,The doctors whose approaches described here are called clinical ecologists( mds %26 other health pros who practice per auspices of the american academy of environmental medicine)they are not recognized by insurance companies or mainstream medical folks.have your mom do as her doc tells her,find out about the other stuff,and if she improves a lot taker to the docs office ,you with a camcorder,show the doc your new and improved mom,ask the doc for his answer,and broadcast the answer over u-tube,and keep us posted at the university of yahoo

---