chronic bronchitis

Imagine airway lining that has turned into an overactive mucus factory — constantly producing sticky phlegm that the body keeps trying to cough up. That is the day-to-day experience of chronic bronchitis: a long-standing, productive cough that becomes a regular part of life rather than a passing illness.

Clinically, chronic bronchitis is defined by a chronic productive cough on most days for at least three months in each of two consecutive years, with other causes excluded. Underneath, irritants (most often cigarette smoke) inflame the airway lining, enlarge mucus glands, multiply goblet cells, and impair the mucociliary escalator, so mucus accumulates and the airways narrow.

It is one of the two classic faces of COPD, alongside emphysema, and the two often coexist. Note that the term is a clinical, symptom-based definition: a person can have a chronic productive cough without airflow obstruction, and only when persistent obstruction is present on spirometry does it sit within COPD. Stopping smoking is the single most effective step to reduce mucus and slow decline.