Pneumonia Symptoms, Risk Factors & Natural Treatments

Pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death in children globally, killing more than 2,500 children a day worldwide. It’s also to blame for up to 7 percent of all deaths in adults. (1) According to the American Lung Association, believe it or not there are more than 30 different causes of pneumonia. (2) Luckily not every case is very serious or life-threatening, especially those considered to be “walking pneumonia,” a milder type that rarely requires serious intervention or hospitalization to deal with pneumonia symptoms.

The most common cause of pneumonia infections is complications due to other respiratory illnesses, especially the flu. Other reasons you or your child might come down with pneumonia? These include contact with certain fungi or viruses, catching pneumonia from someone’s who infected, or even exposure to indoor air pollution and toxic chemicals.

The severity of pneumonia symptoms that someone experiences depends on factors like the specific type of pneumonia the person has (bacterial versus viral), medical history, age and strength of the immune system. If you have viral pneumonia, unfortunately you also are at risk for getting bacterial pneumonia too — making pneumonia symptoms even worse and complications more likely.

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