Pneumonia is a bacterial infection that is spread by the bacteria known by the same name. This condition is caused due to exposure to cold temperatures when the person is suffering from even slight flu and cold. This condition can also get worse and more complicated if the patient is already suffering from additional diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Pneumonia can also be triggered by these diseases. This article will tell you all there is to know about Pneumonia symptoms.

• Symptoms: To begin with, there is something known as walking pneumonia, when the patient will demonstrate mild symptoms of the disease. The symptoms may differ as per the severity of the disease. For a severe bout of pneumonia, the patient will have to be hospitalized so that the symptoms like racking, intense cough and acute chest pain may be dealt with appropriately with proper medical intervention.

• Gastrointestinal symptoms: There are various gastrointestinal symptoms that are associated with this disease. The patient will experience loose motions or diarrhea and even nausea and vomiting. This is due to the fact that the constant coughing will make eating and digesting food a difficult affair.

• Lung-related symptoms: The patient will have an intense cough, as discussed above. In many cases, one may even find blood discharge in the mucus of a cough. This will also lead to chest pain and a feeling of breathlessness on a persistent basis. If the breathing becomes exceptionally difficult, then the patient may have to be given an oxygen mask. Other symptoms related to the lungs and the surrounding area will include chills that will spread through the rest of the body as well as an accelerated heartbeat which will leave the patient feeling short of breath at all times. The patient will also feel tired and weak at all time due to all these intense symptoms.

• Age-related symptoms: Older patients may have less or more mild symptoms. Younger people and children will experience these symptoms in particularly high doses. Confusion and delirium are one of the main symptoms that older people will experience and the cough that they have will also be drier in nature.

• Symptoms related to other diseases: There are a number of symptoms that may be born from other diseases. To begin with, pneumonia may itself manifest during the course of treatment being followed for cancer. This may also be triggered by other chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease because these diseases usually leave the body in a state of low immunity. This will give rise to a series of complications and even make the symptoms all the more pronounced. The fatigue, weakness, and cough may become unbearable and the patient’s blood pressure, blood sugar levels and other such vitals may also take a beating in the bargain, which may give rise to other complications too. Since pneumonia tends to strike when the immunity is low, one may have to guard against the same when going through cold and flu.