Eli5: what’s the difference between pneumonia and asthma?
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Pneumonia is lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection, in which the air sacs fill with pus and may become solid. Inflammation may affect both lungs ( double pneumonia ), one lung ( single pneumonia ), or only certain lobes ( lobar pneumonia ).
Asthma is a respiratory condition marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing. It usually results from an allergic reaction or other forms of hypersensitivity.
Those are definitions of course. Essentially pneumonia is an infection caused by bacteria or virus that results in inflammation and the lungs filling with fluid/puss that can solidify.
Asthma is an sort of autoimmune issue where the body over reacts to normally benign stimuli causing spasms and inflammation in the bronchial tubes.
Pneumonia is buildup of fluid in the lungs. It can be caused by various things. One is inflammation as someone else mentioned. Another is restricted breathing. Like if you break a rib you need to take your painkillers because without them your breath can become restricted unconsciously and that causes fluid buildup.
Asthma is swelling of the bronchial walls. It restricts movement of air into and out of the lungs, and can even close it off.
If you were to stick a tube down into someone’s lungs and squirt water in, you’d cause immediate pneumonia because that’s the definition: fluid in the lungs.
If you were to coat their bronchia with paint or something you’d cause immediate asthma.
The *etiology* — set of upstream causes — of these things can vary. For example “bacterial pneumonia” is pneumonia caused by buildup of phlegm from an inflammation reaction to a bacterial infection.
Similar to how tendonitis (inflammation of a tendon) can be caused by autoimmune activity, or by overexertion, or by an infection of the area around the tendon. It’s all “tendonitis”, in the same way that a crushed car might have gotten crushed by godzilla,
or by a car crash, or by a car crusher.
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