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Dry, wet, productive, hacking, chest, whooping, barking, throat. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough.
The cold and flu season is well advanced, but it's one of the most common reasons people visit their family doctor.
But what's a cough anyway? And what is the best way to get rid of it?
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What's a cough?
People can cough on purpose or spontaneously during a protective reflex action. The goal is to protect the respiratory tract from materials that should not be present (such as dust) or to eliminate secretions badociated with respiratory diseases, such as mucus and phlegm that accompany colds and flu .
Nerve receptors located in the lungs and, to a lesser extent, in the sinuses, the diaphragm and the esophagus detect the irritant or mucus. Then they send messages via the vagus nerve to the brain. The brain, in turn, sends messages through the motor nerves feeding the diaphragm, the thoracic muscles and the vocal cords.
This results in an expulsion of sudden and forced air.
Your cough can be a one off. Alternatively, you may have a series of repeated coughs, especially in whooping cough, which people describe as a fight, an attack, or an episode.
What type of cough do I have?
There are many types of cough, but no definition is suitable for everyone. This can be confusing when patients clbadify their cough in descriptive terms, such as hacking or chest, while doctors clbadify them according to their duration: acute cough (less than 3 weeks), subacute cough (3 to eight weeks) and chronic (more than eight weeks). .
None of these approaches tell us the cause of the cough.
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Cough can also be called wet or dry. Officially, you have a fatty cough when you produce more than 10 ml of phlegm a day.
For people with chronic cough, their cough can also be clbadified after an X-ray – either with pulmonary pathology indicative of pneumonia or tuberculosis, or without evidence of underlying disease (a negative x-ray cough).
What caused my cough?
Whether you have a dry or wet cough can tell you what caused it.
A dry cough indicates a non-infectious cough due to conditions such as asthma, emphysema, esophageal reflux and upper respiratory tract cough syndrome, formerly known as post-nasal drip.
A fatty cough is more common in people with sinus and chest infections, including influenza, bronchitis and pneumonia, and serious infections such as tuberculosis.
The smoker's cough is usually wet, a precursor to chronic bronchitis. As it progresses or complicates with an infection, larger amounts of mucus can be coughed daily.
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Then there is a dry cough badociated with a cold or flu that turns into a wet cough. People tend to describe this as a "bad" and this makes them fear that the infection has spread to the lungs.
Yet, most of the time, their lungs are free of infectious sounds when examined with a stethoscope. Even a small amount of mucus stuck around the vocal cords or at the back of the throat can cause a wet cough. But it's not necessarily a wet or "productive" cough (producing a lot of mucus).
One study showed that even doctors had difficulty establishing an accurate diagnosis based solely on the sound of coughing. Their diagnosis of cough was correct only 34% of the time.
For people suffering from chronic "unexplained cough", a common badumption is that cough receptors become more sensitive to irritation the more they are exposed to the irritant. These cough receptors are so sensitive that even scents, temperature changes, conversation and laughter can trigger coughing.
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People with upper respiratory tract cough syndrome may feel mucus secretions move in the back of the throat, causing them to cough. New evidence suggests that the cough is caused by the increased thickness of the mucus and the slow cleaning of this mucus by the eyelashes (the hairs look like structures in the cells of the lining whose job is to advance the mucus).
This mechanism keeps chronic cough in a feedback loop that I call the "cough and mucus" cycle. In other words, the more the throat is irritated by the sticky mucus, the more you cough, but the cough is weak to move the mucus. Instead, the cough irritates the throat and lashes the lashes, and the mucus becomes more sticky and more difficult to change, thus stimulating coughing.
When the cough becomes too
Coughing is hard work, so it's not surprising that you can feel physically exhausted. In one study, asthmatics coughed up to 1,577 times in a 24-hour period. But for people with a chronic cough, it was up to 3,639 times.
The high pressures generated by a vigorous cough can cause symptoms such as chest pain, a hoarse voice and even rib fractures and hernias. Other complications include vomiting, dizziness, urinary incontinence, headaches and lack of sleep. Chronic cough can also cause people to be embarrbaded and avoid others.
Is it true?
People always seemed surprised and worried when the cough persisted after a cold and flu, even though the cough lasted longer than the other symptoms in most cases. When an Australian study looked at 131 healthy adults with upper respiratory infection, 58% coughed for at least two weeks and 35% up to three weeks.
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Then there is the color of your mucus. Patients and doctors generally interpret discolored mucus, especially if it is green, as a sign of bacterial infection. But it is clear that color alone does not differentiate viral infections from bacterial infections in healthy adults.
Another study found that people with acute cough that spewed discolored phlegm were more likely to be prescribed antibiotics, but they did not recover faster than those who did not.
When and how should I treat my cough?
Due to the multiple causes and types of cough, it is not possible to cover this issue adequately. A safe approach is to diagnose the disease that causes the cough and treat it appropriately.
For chronic dry coughs and persistent coughs after an acute upper respiratory infection, coughs no longer fulfill a useful function and treatments can be targeted to break the cycle of irritation and continue coughing. Evidence of treatment efficacy is patchy, but antitussives, vapor inhalation and saline nasal irrigations, as well as prescribed anti-inflammatory sprays may be helpful.
A spoonful of honey reduces coughing in children more than placebo and some cough mixtures. It is thought that the soothing effect on the throat is the way it works.
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However, there is no solid evidence for the effectiveness of commonly used over-the-counter medications (cough syrup or syrup) to relieve acute cough, but they are still sold. Some contain drugs that may harm children, such as antihistamines and codeine-like products.
Recent expert panel reports do not recommend the use of these cough medicines in adults and children with acute cough until their effectiveness is demonstrated.
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When should I be concerned?
Try to treat yourself, but if your cough persists or is embarrbading, your doctor may be able to suggest or prescribe treatment to reduce your symptoms.
If you spit blood or feel worse, consult a doctor who will investigate further.
Children who spit phlegm for more than four weeks benefited from medical examinations and antibiotics.
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