In the early stages, only bad colds or attacks of influenza cause flare-ups. Eventually, though, every minor head cold brings on a severe attack. Many sufferers have several flare-ups every winter. In the late stages, coughing, breathlessness and wheezing are severe and nearly continuous. Around a million others have the disease, many without realising it.
Smoking is the main cause.
Among major diseases to which chronic bronchitis can lead are pulmonary hypertension, emphysema and right-sided heart failure. If infection spreads into the alveoli, the result is likely to be pneumonia. Some chronic bronchitis sufferers gradually become blue about the lips and face because of the lack of oxygen, and eventually develop respiratory failure, their lungs no longer being able to supply their bodies with enough oxygen. Others succumb to lung cancer, not because chronic bronchitis causes cancer but because smoking is so often the cause of both diseases. If you have a morning cough with sputum and if you smoke, stop smoking.