Major Symptoms Of Pneumonia

Shaky Chills

Shaky chills may indicate someone is being affected by pneumonia. When an individual feels cold without a discernible cause, they have the chills. The blood vessels in the individual's skin contract or shrink to reduce heat loss. The muscles react by repeatedly relaxing and contracting as a mechanism to generate more heat in the body. These muscle movements cause the patient to shiver or shake. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that occurs due to viral or bacterial invasion. The immune system reacts to this virus or bacteria by raising the body's internal thermostat.

When the brain tells the body it needs to be at a higher temperature than normal, the body responds with mechanisms to reach that temperature. These mechanisms include making the individual feel cold and initiating repeated intervals of muscle contraction and relaxation. The logic behind these processes is many pathogens are unable to survive or thrive in very high temperatures. The shaky chills from fever are the body's way of trying to stop the pathogen from reproducing and colonizing.

Productive Coughing

An individual who is experiencing episodic or continuous productive coughing may have pneumonia. Coughing is another defense mechanism of the body that helps remove any foreign objects, pathogens, and excess mucus from the lungs. The pathogens responsible for causing pneumonia infections make their way into the lungs, where the immune system detects it. Neutrophils and other immune system components converge into the affected area of the lung to engulf the pathogens and destroy them. This immune defense mechanism causes an increase in mucus production to facilitate the processes and protect the tissues of the lung.

Excessive and chronic coughing causes this sputum to become dislodged, and then coughed out of the lung. The characteristics of the mucus coughed up by an affected individual can indicate the presence of particular pathogens. Rust-colored mucus coughed up from the lung often occurs in pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Green sputum is most associated with Hemophilus, Pseudomonas, and pneumococcal species. Red jelly-like sputum is known to occur when pneumonia is caused by the Klebsiella species. Bad tasting or foul-smelling sputum is known to be caused by anaerobic pneumonia infections.