bronchitis

Many of us search the Internet when we need a quick answer to a health question, and each year Google analyzes the most common health queries, both in this country and globally.

Think you might have bronchitis, a sinus infection,  or other non-life threatening illness and can't wait for an appointment with your regular doctor?  Not sure if you should go to the ER?  Have travel plans and worried if you should fly?  Then these online medical-care sites and mobile apps might be your answer.

My mother, now 77, has suffered with asthma since birth. She tells stories about how her working class parents struggled with the idea of moving the entire family from Brooklyn, N.Y. to Arizona, which was a premiere destination in the 1940s for those with asthma, tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, and other lung issues.

It's the eighth most commonly prescribed drug in the U.S., with 52.3 million prescriptions written for it every year - many in winter for hacking coughs and suspected respiratory infections.