home Drugs What can be done if a dry cough does not go away for a long time. Why does the cough not go away for a long time?

What can be done if a dry cough does not go away for a long time. Why does the cough not go away for a long time?

With proper treatment, the cough should go away after 7-10 days. If a person is plagued by painful coughing attacks for 2 weeks or even a month, it can be assumed that the disease has protracted or acquired chronic form. Perhaps the patient is being treated incorrectly or the doctor has made an incorrect diagnosis. If the cough does not go away for a month, what should I do? Does an adult have some serious illness or is everything fine with him?

What are the causes of a persistent cough?

Cough attacks can occur due to irritation of the mucous membranes of the bronchi, larynx, throat, and lungs. Thanks to this reflex, Airways trying to cleanse themselves of mucus, dangerous substances, foreign bodies, dust. If a person coughs for a long time and painfully, it is not difficult to guess why the cough does not go away for a month. Most likely, the patient is being treated incorrectly or he is ignoring the problem and is irresponsible about his health.

Causes of prolonged cough:

The main cause of prolonged cough is not correct treatment colds. The cough can be dry or wet. Dry appears at the very beginning of influenza, ARVI, acute bronchitis, laryngitis, tracheitis or pharyngitis. The attacks cause painful spasms in the patient, but no sputum is produced. As a result, a person’s blood pressure increases, problems with heartbeat, and pain in the abdominal area arise. A dry cough should be suppressed with antitussive medications.

If the cough does not stop for a week, and unproductive attacks plague the patient on the 7th or 10th day from the onset of the disease, then most likely the mucus is too thick and cannot leave the respiratory tract on its own. In this case, you need to take medications that thin the mucus and speed up its evacuation from the bronchi.

Important! A dry cough needs to be turned into a wet one.

A wet cough occurs after a dry cough or 3 days after the onset of the disease. The attacks bring relief to the patient, each time phlegm leaves the bronchi. Antitussive medications are prohibited during this period, and the airways must be cleaned regularly. The patient must take mucolytic and expectorant medications.

If a dry or wet cough does not stop for a month, we can say that the patient has a serious illness and needs to see a pulmonologist. Probably, after suffering from a cold, a person’s immunity decreased, as a result of which the inflammation turned into a protracted, sluggish form.

A prolonged cough may also be caused by an incorrect diagnosis. If it is not determined in time which specific virus or bacteria caused bronchitis, pneumonia or influenza, then the antibiotics and other medications taken may not be beneficial. Because of this, mucus accumulates in the respiratory tract, does not clear for a long time, and the disease becomes chronic.

Another cause of persistent coughing attacks may be allergies. If a person’s immunity is weakened, then some foods, as well as plant pollen and animal hair, provoke sneezing, tearfulness, and coughing. The allergen, entering the patient’s body, causes nausea and sometimes even vomiting. It is necessary to identify and eliminate it as quickly as possible.

Bronchial asthma is also characterized by frequent coughing attacks. A person suffers from a dry cough and cannot breathe. The disease occurs due to an allergy to some substance, after physical activity or when you have a cold.
It happens that a completely healthy person suddenly begins to cough due to emotional overstrain. Anxiety and stress at work can lead to sudden attacks. In this case, you need to calm down, try not to take everything to heart, and seek help from a neurologist.
With lung or throat cancer, a person coughs every now and then, sometimes to the point of vomiting. It often feels like bronchitis. It is necessary to go to the hospital as soon as possible and diagnose the disease. The earlier cancer is detected, the better a person's chances of recovery.
Gastrointestinal problems can also lead to frequent coughing attacks. If the patient increased acidity, then gastric juice enters the esophagus and causes irritation. A person gets heartburn and starts coughing.
In heart failure, blood stagnates in the lungs. The patient suddenly begins to cough. In a horizontal position, the cough intensifies. If a person sleeps half-sitting at night to avoid coughing, he needs to consult a cardiologist.
Tobacco smoke, constantly entering the lungs, is the cause of chronic non-infectious bronchitis. Pathogenic flora penetrates the respiratory system, and secondary bacterial inflammation develops. A person develops prolonged coughing attacks.

In people with low level immunity or living in poor sanitary conditions, tuberculosis may occur. During the active stage of the disease, prolonged coughing attacks with sputum production appear. This condition is very dangerous not only for the patient, but also for others. The person needs hospitalization. Treatment is carried out in an anti-tuberculosis dispensary.

Important! If the cough does not stop for a month, you need to see a doctor and get examined. It is not advisable to treat prolonged cough attacks on your own. After all, if the cause is heart failure or tuberculosis, there is no point in doing inhalations or steaming your legs.

Treatment of persistent cough in adults

Treatment for prolonged cough depends on its etiology. Only a doctor has the right to treat a patient. First, the specialist examines the patient to establish the cause of the disease and an accurate diagnosis. Each person is prescribed an individual drug treatment. You cannot fight the disease on your own, because due to ignorance of the root cause, home methods can lead to serious consequences or even death.

If the cause of a protracted illness is complications after acute respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, then, first of all, you need to drink as much warm liquid as possible to restore water balance. It can be herbal teas based on sage, chamomile, plantain, primrose, as well as rosehip decoctions, dried fruit compotes.

Drug treatment

Mucolytics and various expectorants (Mukaltin, Doctor Mom, Gerbion) are good for getting rid of dry cough. They are prescribed if a dry cough does not turn into a wet one. Using medicines the mucus thins and the process of its evacuation from the lungs accelerates. If the pathogen is identified, prolonged coughing attacks are treated with antiviral drugs, antibiotics, and antifungals.

For wet coughs, herbal medicines (Pectusin, Chest collection) or synthetic drugs (ACC, Bromhexine, Lazolvan) help well. Medicines help quickly get rid of mucus accumulated in the respiratory tract. The patient is prescribed antibiotics:

penicillins (Amoxiclav);
macrolides (Azithromycin, Clarithromycin);
cephalosporins (Ceftriaxone).

The main thing is to get rid of not only the symptom, but also the cause of the disease.

Prescribed for prolonged cough medical supplies, which activate the immune system. These are medicines based on ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, and Eleutherococcus. They are prescribed after antibiotic therapy.

Physiotherapeutic procedures help cope with prolonged coughing attacks after a cold:

electrophoresis;
magnetic therapy;
inhalation;
massage.

Physiotherapy can be carried out if the person does not have a high fever and the disease is not in the acute stage. During this period, it is recommended to additionally apply warming compresses at home, visit a Russian bathhouse, take pine or salt baths, and engage in physical therapy.

If coughing attacks are triggered by allergies, then the patient should correctly identify the irritant. Food allergies are treated primarily by following a diet. A person should give up smoked foods, citrus fruits, chocolate, fatty foods, store-bought sauces, mayonnaise, mustard, horseradish, and carbonated water. If you are allergic to dust, you need to do wet cleaning as often as possible. If the cause of the disease is animal fur, you should not keep cats or dogs in your apartment.

Allergy medications:

Suprastin;
Claritin;
Telfast;
Prednisolone.

Important! To find out the cause of your cough, you need to see a doctor. Based on tests, radiography, and computer diagnostics, the patient is diagnosed and medications are selected. Treatment of tuberculosis, whooping cough, asthma, cancer, heart failure is carried out according to individual schemes.

Folk remedies

At home, you can treat a prolonged cough with folk remedies. If after a cold the attacks do not go away for a long time and there is no fever, you can do steam inhalations. To do this, brew medicinal herbs (sage, plantain, St. John's wort, coltsfoot) in a pan of water or simply add a spoonful of soda to boiling water and breathe in the steam for about 10 minutes.

If you have a cough without sputum, you can make compresses from steamed cabbage leaves, smeared with honey, or put mustard plasters or jars.
Massage helps remove stagnant mucus.
You can go to the bathhouse and warm your lungs with wet steam. At the same time, you should avoid cold showers, because dousing cold water may lead to bronchospasm.

Recipe for prolonged coughing attacks

The following ingredients will be required:

radish – 1 pc.;
honey – 1 tbsp. l.;
sugar – 1 tbsp. l.

Fresh radishes need to be washed and cut into two parts. Make a hole in each with a spoon, sprinkle with sugar and pour over honey. Draining juice is taken 1 tsp. every 3 hours.

The cause of a prolonged cough can be untreated colds or diseases of the heart, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. The cause can only be determined through examination and tests.

The bronchi can react to even the smallest irritants, causing bouts of prolonged coughing that need to be quelled as soon as possible. Sometimes the respiratory system does not resist the disease at all. In this case, mucus stagnates, which needs to be liquefied and removed. Treatment is prescribed by a doctor based on his diagnosis. It is unacceptable to self-medicate a prolonged cough.

Among the many symptoms of disease, cough is a complex and unpleasant manifestation. Therefore, if it does not go away after a week or a month, then the patient begins to worry and suspect the presence of serious illnesses.

Sometimes, after a cold, a cough remains that does not end for a long time. At the same time, we tried various means and treatment methods. In this case, you should seek medical help if the cough does not go away for more than 15 days.

But why doesn't this symptom disappear quickly? Perhaps the body was exhausted during the course of a cold and at this inopportune time an infection or virus entered it.

The body can overcome viruses on its own, but only if it is not weakened. Therefore, in order to successfully cure a long-term cough, it is necessary to find out which microorganism provoked its appearance, so you need to carry out all the necessary research.

Prolonged cough: causes

If the cough does not go away for a long time, for example, the cough does not go away for a month, then it is helped following infections and diseases:

pneumocystis;
mycoplasma;
fungal microflora (chlamydia, candida);
tuberculosis.

In addition, the infection can be mixed. This option is the worst, because the course of such diseases is quite severe. At the same time, the patient experiences weakness, his temperature rises strongly and sweat profusely.

It is worth noting that incorrect, defective or untimely treatment of such diseases leads to their progression.

All of the above microorganisms can enter the body through airborne droplets when an infected person sneezes or coughs.

The chances of infection double if an adult’s body is weakened or if he experiences severe stress at work.

Therefore, you should strengthen your immune system, eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, get enough sleep and exercise.

What to do if the cough does not stop for a week?

Cough is an involuntary expiratory reflex that occurs as a result of irritation of the mucous membrane of the larynx, bronchi or throat and lung tissue. Thanks to this symptom, the airways are cleared of foreign bodies, harmful microorganisms, mucus, dust and sputum.

The reasons that provoke a prolonged cough include:

colds;
allergies;
emotional overstrain.

Moreover, the cough can be wet or dry, night, daytime, periodic, paroxysmal, etc.

If the cause of a week’s cough is an acute respiratory infection, then the doctor prescribes antitussive drugs, but you cannot take antibiotics, since they only affect bacteria. But antibacterial agents may be appropriate for bronchitis and pneumonia, which are accompanied by symptoms such as fever and severe cough.

In addition to antibiotics, if a severe cough does not go away for a week, expectorants based on medicinal plants are prescribed. In addition, the doctor may prescribe immunomodulatory drugs that activate protective functions the body and suppress the effect of antiviral drugs.

It is worth noting that if the cough not only does not go away for more than a week, but is also accompanied by chest pain, high temperature (38 or more), and when coughing up bloody, green or yellow sputum is released, then you cannot self-medicate, but you must quickly contact doctor.

There are some recommendations that are important to follow when treating a persistent cough in an adult. To prevent your throat from getting dry, you need to drink plenty of fluids. For this purpose, you can drink warm milk with honey every evening.

Fruit drinks and juices are no less useful. In addition, if a dry cough does not go away for more than a week, you should drink fresh black radish juice (1 tablespoon three times a day).

What to do if the cough does not stop within a month?

Why does a prolonged cough occur and what can be done to eliminate it? If this symptom does not go away for a month, then the following factors may be to blame:

To successfully treat a long-term cough, it is important to know whether this symptom was the root cause of the disease or whether it developed during its course. In addition, you need to determine its nature - productive or unproductive, frequent or rare, spastic or paroxysmal, etc.

You should quickly consult a doctor if your cough with phlegm does not go away for more than a month and is accompanied by symptoms such as:

severe swelling;
sweating;
nausea;
weight loss;
colorless, thick discharge or sputum with blood;
lack of appetite;
dyspnea;
heat;
fast fatiguability;
chest pain.

In addition, a cough that does not stop for a long time can become chronic. To prevent this from happening, you need to go to the doctor if the cough reflex does not stop within five days. Many do not pay due attention to this symptom, and even more so if it is not accompanied by weakness, runny nose and fever, but if not treated, time will be irretrievably lost.

When the cough does not stop for about four weeks, you need to make an appointment with an ENT specialist, a therapist, an allergist, a TB specialist, and possibly a pulmonologist. Doctors, after conducting an examination, will be able to determine why the cough does not stop for so long and what to do to cure it.

So, a cough that lasts for a month may indicate the presence of:

But in order to definitively determine the cause of a prolonged cough, it will be necessary to carry out additional research. This may be a blood test, sputum culture for flora, a blood test for the presence of mycoplasma and chlamydia, a Mantoux test and an x-ray of the lungs.

In addition, a cough that does not subside for more than 4 weeks is typical for smokers and people working in hazardous industries, where they constantly inhale mold and dust.

Thus, silicosis often develops in miners, asbestosis in construction workers, and pneumonitis in agricultural workers.

Treating a cough that lasts longer than a month

It is worth noting that it is not advisable to treat a prolonged cough without medical advice. Indeed, depending on the cause, a certain method of treatment is necessary, for example, in case of heart failure, it makes no sense to drink antitussive syrups, swallow tablets or take inhalations.

So, to successfully treat a persistent cough in an adult, it is important to restore fluid balance, so the patient needs to drink plenty of fluids. In this case, the patient’s diet should not be too high in calories; it is best to enrich it with fruits and vegetables.

In addition, inhalations for coughs with the addition of pine oil, coltsfoot, baking soda, thyme, sage and chamomile are effective.

For a productive cough with viscous secretions, you need to use medications that thin the sputum. These medications include mucolytics and expectorants.

Moreover, it is better if such funds are based on medicinal plants. And with a small amount of discharge, expectorant syrups and tablets are prescribed.

But it is worth noting that such drugs cannot be taken together with antitussive drugs.

Prolonged cough

A persistent cough is one that does not go away for 4-8 weeks. Therefore, a two-week cough is considered only a suspicion of a long-term symptom.

So, if a cough does not go away for a long time, then its causes may lie in the presence of the following diseases:

bronchial asthma;
left ventricular failure;
HIV infection;
tuberculosis;
lungs' cancer.

In addition, it is necessary to conduct a thorough diagnosis of the patient to identify the causes of a long-lasting cough. Thus, rapid and confused breathing is characteristic of cardiac (acrocyanosis) and pulmonary failure. If bronchiectasis and lung cancer are suspected, the ENT performs an examination called “drumsticks”.

It is also necessary to examine the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx or pharynx. In this case, the doctor examines nasal discharge, confirms or excludes the presence of polyps in the nasal cavity and sinusitis, which manifests itself painful sensations in the projection of the paranasal sinuses.

It is worth noting that the temperature with a prolonged cough may not always be elevated. It accompanies only some diseases, such as sinusitis, tuberculosis and pneumonia.

In addition, the doctor should examine the patient's neck. During the study, manifestations such as a positive venous pulse may be revealed, which indicates pulmonary insufficiency.

When increasing the rear or anterior cervical lymph nodes and nodes of the supraclavicular region, there is a suspicion of cancer of the larynx or lungs. And when listening, signs such as noise, local or scattered dry rales may be revealed.

In order to get rid of lingering cough Most often, drugs that activate the immune system are prescribed. For this purpose, the patient should take products based on Rhodiola rosea, ginseng, and Eleutherococcus. As a rule, they are used after antibiotic therapy. In the video in this article, a specialist will tell you. what to do with a prolonged cough.

stopgripp.ru

The cough has not gone away for a month now, the cough is dry, strong to the point of vomiting, ACC and other medications do not help. What could be the reason?

Answers:

Irene Nitzsche

try it
1. Inhalations. Their purpose is to warm, moisturize and facilitate mucus discharge. It helps with cough and loss of voice. The main therapeutic effect is provided by the steam itself! But to enhance the effect, inhalations are made with brewed chamomile, mint, coltsfoot or thyme (known to many housewives as a seasoning). The infusion is prepared as follows: 2 tablespoons of the herb are poured with 2 cups of boiling water, inhaled, then infused for one hour under the lid and filtered. Take half a glass orally 4 times a day.
For a stronger inhalation effect, you need to dissolve 10 validol tablets or a little Golden Star in hot water, but you can’t drink this afterwards.
HOW TO CARRY OUT INHALATION. You can use a special inhaler or roll up a funnel from thick paper, cover the pan or kettle with its wide end, and inhale the steam through the narrow gap. Many people prefer to breathe the steam over a bowl, covering their heads with a towel. This is also not forbidden, but be careful not to accidentally knock over the pan with hot water. And keep in mind that if you have high blood pressure, this method is contraindicated.
It is strictly forbidden to breathe over water that continues to boil over the fire!
It is more convenient for a child to do inhalation from a teapot or coffee pot. Fill it one-third full with water. Place a pacifier with the end cut off or a rubber tube through which the baby will breathe. Inhalation is recommended for children from 2 to 3 years of age and must be supervised by an adult.
The duration of any inhalation is 5 - 10 - 15 minutes, for children - up to 5 minutes. Do it 1 - 2 times a day.
Babies need a Nebulizer.
2. To treat cough, they can also help folk remedies.
For example, drink an infusion of marshmallow, thyme or coltsfoot, left over from inhalation.
Mix grated black radish with honey and leave for several hours - as a result you will get healing drink, perfectly copes with dry cough.
A folk recipe from Brazil: rub a couple of overripe bananas through a sieve, stir with a glass of warm water or milk, add a spoonful of honey.
Take 2-3 figs, maybe dried, wash them, pour a glass of milk and cook over low heat until the milk turns brown. Drink milk and eat figs boiled in it 2-3 times a day in between meals for 10-15 days.
Milk with honey. Boil a medium-sized onion in 0.5 liters of milk and add a spoonful of honey. This mixture should be consumed at night. The milk is very tasty, does not smell of onions at all, and even children drink it easily. A dry cough after it becomes softer and goes away faster.
You can drink sweetened onion juice (2-3 spoons per day) or a mixture of freshly squeezed carrot juice with warm milk (1:1).
Warm milk with soda (a quarter teaspoon of soda per glass) or milk in half with mineral water (Essentuki No. 4) - two to three times a day - helps to separate phlegm.
FOR ADULTS
2 tablespoons honey, 2 tbsp. l. cognac, 2 tbsp. l lemon juice drink it at night for 3 days and the cough is gone.
Eggnog (egg yolks beaten with sugar and rum) is also a great cough reliever if eaten on an empty stomach.
3. To get rid of a cough during a cold, you can rub your chest with any lard (even pork) and wrap yourself up warm. Bear, badger and other exotic lard has no advantages! Proof of this: Ukrainian folk remedy: lard for cough For a prolonged chest cough, wipe the chest with a dry cloth, then rub lard or melted butter until dry. Should not be added a large number of pine oil to lard, which is considered better than ghee.
An ordinary iodine net or a bag of heated oats or salt placed on the chest is also good. Another option is one pepper patch on the chest and two under the shoulder blades, keep it on for a day (remove if the burning sensation is severe!).

If it doesn’t help in 1-2 weeks, look for an allergy

Vasya Menshov

but do you smoke?

Anyuta

It could be whooping cough, or it could be an allergy - they take antibiotics for whooping cough, but the cough persists for a long time, according to folk methods you need a strong positive impression - for an adult, for example, a parachute jump :), if you have an allergy, you can, for example, drink zodak

Galina.

The doctor will tell you for sure! Maybe they started treating the cough too late, and everything turned out very neglected? Maybe it's time to do a chest x-ray (well, you never know what's in your lungs...)?

kitty honey

Hello!
1. How did the cough begin? (ARVI, what happened at the beginning?)
2. Who does he work for? (is the place of work favorable? - occupational hazard)
3. Fluorography when it was last time? (you can see not only tuberculosis)

Satisfaction

How long have you been taking the medications? In order to really help, you need to be treated for at least 10 days, and exactly as the doctor prescribed... .

Otherwise, I know you guys... we take the right treatment for two days, and as soon as we feel better, we take all the pills... but the new one sticks to the untreated...

Elena the beautiful

you need to do a fluorography and donate blood from your finger and see the result EOSINOPHILES - if more than 5, then most likely an allergic cough. but of course you need to see a doctor.

RAS

Maybe you caught whooping cough? Nothing can cure it until you get over it. Try SINEKOD, it’s a centrally acting antitussive, just don’t drink anything else with it.

Secret

Bromhexine and mustard plasters help me
from folk means - black radish with honey

JDDDD

I had this with pneumonia. So it’s better not to joke with this, but to go to the doctor.

Olga Neustroyeva

When the cough was really bothering me, a Validol tablet helped. By the way, the doctor recommended it. maybe not a kiss

Alena M. Travilkina

dry coughs should always be softened so that phlegm can come out
Sometimes a cough means something is affecting the nerve in your throat. I can't speak for you, this was a sign for me chronic sinusitis, the existence of which I did not suspect for years.

Why doesn't a dry cough go away? Causes of dry cough in children and adults

Coughing is a reflex, just like breathing itself. And its appearance indicates that some kind of pathogen has appeared - allergic, infectious, viral, that is, the cause of a dry cough, serious or not, which causes irritation in the respiratory tract and forces the body to cleanse them of - allergen, infection, virus or foreign body.

Cough itself is not a disease; it is a symptom of over 50 different diseases or allergic manifestations, from a common cold to tuberculosis, oncology, bronchial asthma or heart disease. Most often, a dry cough goes away within a few days, turning into a productive, wet cough with sputum, but sometimes it can drag on. Based on duration, dry cough is divided into:

Acute - which after a few days turns into wet or goes away
Prolonged – which lasts from 3 weeks to 3 months
Chronic – which lasts more than 3 months.

Let's figure out why a dry cough does not go away for a long time, what diseases cause a dry cough.

The main causes of dry cough related to the respiratory system

The most common causes of dry cough are inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract, caused by viruses and pathogenic bacteria.

In this case, a strong body with a strong immune system copes on its own, and if the immune response to a virus or infection is weakened, then antibiotics or antiviral drugs come to the rescue for ARVI and influenza.

If you have parainfluenza and influenza, you should definitely consult a doctor, since these are very insidious diseases that have recently become very aggressive, leading to a lot of complications. Read our article about how to distinguish influenza from ARVI.

If a dry cough does not go away for a long time during an acute respiratory viral infection, influenza or other infectious disease, this may be caused by:

firstly, because the human immune system is significantly weakened
secondly, that there are provoking factors that affect the duration of a dry cough, these include: smoking and drinking alcohol, very dry air in the room and taking insufficient fluids during a cold or viral disease.
thirdly, the addition of a secondary infection or complication after a viral disease, when bacterial bronchitis, pneumonia, tracheitis, pharyngitis, etc. develop.

Diseases of the pleura and lungs can also be accompanied by a dry, painful cough - this is pneumonia, pleurisy. In this case, most often there is a high temperature, shortness of breath, and chest pain.

Atypical forms of pneumonia

It should also be borne in mind that a prolonged cough can be a consequence of mycoplasma and chlamydia; these pathogens can cause atypical pneumonia, bronchitis, which can last a long time and periodically recur. To differentiate the pathogen that caused pneumonia or bronchitis, you can take a blood test using ELISA.

Whooping cough, measles, false croup

Whooping cough can cause a dry cough in children and adults. Whooping cough is considered to be childhood infectious disease, although vaccinations have reduced the incidence of whooping cough among children, they still occur; in addition, cases of whooping cough are also sometimes recorded in weakened adults. With this disease, the convulsive cough is so strong that it often leads to vomiting. In this case, you should take antitussives for dry cough, such as Sinekod, Libexin, Bronholitin, etc.

In addition to whooping cough, among childhood diseases characterized by a severe dry cough are measles and false croup. Measles, in addition to coughing, is also characterized by rashes on the skin and mucous membranes (see symptoms of measles in children). At false croup the inflammation process involves the vocal cords, larynx, trachea and bronchi, so it is characterized barking cough. Children under 3 years of age are more susceptible to this disease.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a terrible disease, which in recent years has also become epidemic, not only among low-income people. social level, as is commonly believed, but also among wealthy segments of the population, with the development of favorable factors for its progression. Constant nervous tension, stressful situations, lack of adequate nutrition and good rest, addiction to various depleting diets can lead to the development of tuberculosis even among businessmen and people of high social status.

By the age of 20-30, it is believed that every person is infected with Koch's bacillus, but a strong immune system copes with it. Once the body weakens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis can become more active and cause pulmonary tuberculosis and its extrapulmonary forms.

As for dry cough, its cause may be tuberculosis of the lungs, bronchi or trachea, larynx. It starts with dry nonproductive cough, obsessive coughing, weakness, while the body temperature rarely exceeds 37.3-35.5, most often it rises to low-grade levels and only in the evening.

Tuberculosis can cause dry cough in adults as well as in children, which is especially dangerous because tuberculosis today is not the same tuberculosis that was 40 years ago. A large number of drug-resistant forms of this disease are now being registered. terrible disease, which require longer and more expensive treatment, and in combination with other chronic diseases in the patient or HIV infection lead to death.

Laryngitis, pharyngitis, tracheitis

are also common reasons dry cough With pharyngitis, the pharyngeal mucosa is involved in the inflammatory process, and with laryngitis, the laryngeal mucosa is involved. Both of these diseases can be both acute and chronic; the cough is dry, barking, debilitating, and worsens at night. With frequent inhalation of dusty, dry, cold air, as well as the presence of irritating gases and vapors in the air, tracheitis can develop - both acute and chronic. This also causes a painful dry cough.

Diseases of ENT organs

Against the background of various diseases of the nasopharynx, such as sinusitis, sinusitis, or chronic rhinitis, allergic rhinitis, the appearance of a dry cough at night is explained by postnasal drip syndrome. When these diseases become chronic, it is not uncommon that mucus discharged from the nasal sinuses begins to flow down the back wall of the pharynx, irritating the cough receptors in the tracheobronchial tree. This cough may seem productive and wet because the cough produces nasal mucus, but it should be considered a dry cough.

Oncological diseases of the respiratory organs

Cancer of the bronchi, lungs, trachea, throat cancer, as well as mediastinal organs (organs located between the sternum and the spine - heart, bronchi, aorta, etc.). If a dry cough does not go away for a long time, it bothers you both day and night, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible, take a blood test, an X-ray of the lungs, if indicated, an MRI of the mediastinal organs, bronchoscopy, and tests for tumor markers is possible. With any chronic cough, you should find out the exact cause of its appearance; today, oncological tension is becoming stronger, cancer appears even in young people, and everyone knows that timely detection of oncological diseases increases the chances of recovery or a significant prolongation of life.

Only on the basis of an examination, a doctor cannot determine the cause of a lingering cough - this is not possible, so it is necessary to take tests and undergo several examinations according to indications - blood test, sputum test, spirography, spirometry, X-ray, bronchoscopy, body plethysmography, tousography, MRI, CT.

Causes of dry cough not related to inflammatory processes in the respiratory system

Allergic cough

In recent decades, the number of people suffering from various allergic reactions among the Russian population has significantly increased, this is especially noticeable in children. Almost all children today have some kind of allergic reaction, if not a food allergy, then an allergy to dust, wool, pollen, mites, etc. Hay fever - seasonal allergies Due to the pollen of flowering plants, which appears in spring and summer, a very large number of people suffer from hay fever; it manifests itself as sneezing, runny nose, tearing, itching of the mucous membranes and a dry allergic cough.

Bronchial asthma

a very common disease characterized by a chronic painful dry cough and asthma attacks. This disease cannot be considered only a disease of the bronchi; it is a severe pathology that is associated with general violation immunity, nervous system and allergies.

Exposure to toxic substances in the home

household chemicals containing chlorine, washing powders etc., the presence of an abundance of exhaust gases in the air of cities and megacities leads to the occurrence of an allergic dry cough. Also pay attention to when your dry cough started, maybe it has something to do with the purchase of new furniture, new renovation, acquisition household appliances. Modern industry, especially the production of plastic, furniture, building materials, even children's toys, often uses an abundance of toxic chemicals that can irritate the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx and bronchi, causing chronic chemical poisoning. If there are a lot of such products in the room, they are new and emit an odor - this may be the cause of a dry cough.

Worm infestations

Sometimes cases of ascariasis are recorded, in which, during the migration of ascaris larvae through the pulmonary circulation, they are retained in lung tissue, causing an annoying dry cough. Getting into the lungs, trachea and bronchi, they cause irritation of cough receptors; the migratory phase for ascariasis is 8-14 days (see roundworms - symptoms and treatment).

Professional dry cough

The reason for its appearance may be associated with working in hazardous industries, where a mass of suspended toxic substances is formed in the air, causing workers to have a dry cough. Workers in the stone processing and coal mining industries often develop pulmonary silicosis. Also among the occupational diseases that cause dry cough, it is worth noting the disease of American farmers or fibrosing alveolitis, where dry cough is only the debut of a pathology, the outcome of which is severe respiratory failure.

Some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract

Some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract provoke a dry reflex cough without fever; it occurs after eating with diverticula of the esophagus, esophageal-tracheal fistula, reflux esophagitis.

Taking certain medications

usually ACE inhibitors, which are used to reduce blood pressure and treatment of other cardiovascular diseases. In 20% of patients, these medications cause a dry cough, if after discontinuation of the drug it disappears, therefore, this cough was side effect the drug being taken.

Cardiovascular diseases and heart failure can also cause dry cough

The cause of the allergy, the provocateur of allergic reactions, can be determined using tests ordered by an allergist. It is worth taking any manifestations of allergies seriously, since it is not just a dry cough, runny nose or rash, with severe allergic reaction may happen anaphylactic shock, Quincke's edema, which without timely medical care can be fatal.

zdravotvet.ru

What to do if a dry cough does not go away?

Many people are interested in the question, what to do if a dry cough does not go away? This phenomenon occurs frequently. But before we begin to solve this problem, we need to identify the causes of the cough. Indeed, in many cases this indicates the presence of a chronic disease.

Why doesn't my dry cough go away?

Do you know why a dry cough does not go away? In this case, much depends on the treatment itself and the reason for which it arose. Thus, this phenomenon is mainly associated with problems of the upper respiratory tract, the causative agents of which are viruses and pathogenic bacteria. In this case, a strong organism will be able to cope with the infection, but a weak one, on the contrary, will not be able to resist it, which leads to serious consequences.

If you have parainfluenza or influenza, you should definitely consult a doctor. After all, these diseases can become aggressive over time and lead to a lot of complications.

Diseases of the pleura and lungs can also be accompanied by an unpleasant dry cough. This indicates the presence of pneumonia or pleurisy. In addition, these phenomena are characterized by shortness of breath, chest pain and high fever. For atypical forms Pneumonia is a normal phenomenon - a lingering cough. To diagnose it, you need to take a blood test using the ELISA method.

Whooping cough, measles and false croup. These diseases are characterized by symptoms of coughing, and prolonged coughing. In some cases it is convulsive in nature. Moreover, it is so strong that one has to resort to the help of antitussives.

Tuberculosis is a terrible disease that mainly affects people of low social level. Constant nervous tension, stressful situations, lack of adequate nutrition and good rest, passion for various depleting diets can lead to the development of this disease.

Laryngitis, pharyngitis and tracheitis can lead to common causes of dry cough. Inflammatory processes in these diseases affect the mucous membrane of the pharynx and larynx. In this case, a barking, debilitating and painful cough may occur for a long time.

Oncological diseases in particular lead to the appearance of a lingering cough. In this case, you need to conduct an examination and begin treatment.

An allergic cough often occurs due to the appearance of allergens. Mostly children suffer from this phenomenon. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the allergen and begin to fight it effectively. Bronchial asthma is characterized by a painful dry cough.

Worm infestations, occupational dry cough, gastroesophageal reflux and cardiovascular diseases can also lead to a lingering cough. This is why you should not self-medicate. After all, the reason for this phenomenon may lie in many problems. Your doctor will tell you what to do if your dry cough does not go away.

What to do if a dry cough does not go away for a long time?

Do you know what to do if a dry cough does not go away for a long time? There are times when an unpleasant symptom does not want to go away. This may indicate the presence of a serious disease that needs to be eliminated through medication.

If the problem lies in the presence of infection, then the patient can be offered to drink warmed milk with the addition of a small amount of baking soda. This drink will make a dry cough more productive and will help get rid of phlegm and completely eliminate it.

Coltsfoot decoctions, plantain juice, thyme and anise fruit extract, as well as black radish with honey also help well. But these remedies are particularly effective when used in combination.

Inhalations can be a common method of treatment. It is not necessary to use medications. An ordinary one will do. mineral water Borjomi or baking soda solution. It is recommended to use this method for obsessive dry cough in children. Naturally, everything should take place under the guidance of a doctor.

If traditional medicine does not inspire confidence, you can use medications. Antitussives are particularly effective. Some of them affect not only the functions of the cough center, but also others nerve centers brain These include Glaucine, Dextromethorphan, Prenoxdiazine, Codeine and other drugs based on them.

Peripheral antitussive drugs can act on cough receptors in the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. To speed up the transition of a dry cough to a wet one, they try to use mucolytics. One of the most effective is Fluditek. In general, what to do if a dry cough does not go away is up to the attending physician. He also prescribes effective drugs in the required dosage.

What to do if a dry cough does not go away for a month?

Not many people know what to do if a dry cough does not go away for a month. So, a non-productive cough in many cases indicates the development in the body of diseases such as flu, colds, appears after hypothermia, but most often it soon turns into a productive form.

If there is no sputum discharge, you need to drink special drugs. This phenomenon can occur against the background of an infection in the lung tissue. In this case, treatment should be carried out by taking medications.

When a dry cough torments a smoker, in this case the problem is of a slightly different nature. Most likely, the body is unable to tolerate the effects of nicotine. Will help you cope with this situation complete failure from a bad habit.

If a strong dry cough does not go away and torments a person only at night, then you just need to change the angle of the pillow. The fact is that in a horizontal position in a person, mucus intensively flows down the back wall of the larynx and irritates it.

If, along with a dry cough, you also suffer from a sore throat, then experts advise drinking a solution of a spoonful of honey and 200 ml of water, this helps soften the inflamed mucous membrane of the throat. In this case, the question is: what to do if a dry cough does not go away, it will disappear on its own.

What to do if a dry cough does not go away for a week?

Do you know what to do if a dry cough does not go away for a week? The first step is to seek help from a specialist. This problem is not global in nature, but may indicate the presence of a serious inflammatory process.

You can visit a physiatrist, he will prescribe special procedures. Traditional medicine is not in last place. So, to prepare an effective remedy, you need to take a chopped head of garlic and a dozen onions. All this is boiled in cow's milk until completely softened. The resulting mixture should be diluted with honey. The finished composition should be consumed daily, 1 tablespoon, every hour.

The second recipe is no less effective. Simply take a teaspoon of salt and dissolve it in a glass of warm water. boiled water. You should gargle with the resulting solution every hour.

The third recipe is represented by inhalations. It allows you to improve the process of sputum discharge. It is advisable to use essential oils.

If traditional medicine is not to your liking, then medications are used. Perfectly relieve the obsessive problem: Sinekod, Lazolvan, Mucaltin, Bronchipret and Tusuprex. They must be taken in accordance with the instructions. The approximate dosage is no more than 3 tablets per day. Now what to do if a dry cough does not go away has become extremely clear.

ilive.com.ua

There are situations when a cough, regardless of treatment, does not go away, but becomes protracted. This condition cannot be ignored; urgent measures must be taken immediately, re-examination and a course of therapy must be taken. A persistent cough can be diagnosed if it lasts more than 2 weeks.

This article shows how to use badger fat for coughing.

Causes

Various reasons can contribute to the development of a persistent cough. Most often, this condition occurs due to ineffective or untimely treatment.

Duration 1-2 weeks

If your cough has been bothering you for more than 2 weeks, then you need to go to the hospital to see a doctor. Most often, the cause of a lingering cough is a repeated infectious attack on the body, which has not yet been able to overcome the disease. This is facilitated by mycoplasma or pneumocystis. Tuberculosis can also provoke pathology, but this is very rare case. If the doctor makes an incorrect diagnosis, this can negatively affect your health and cause complications such as pneumonia.

How to treat cough and fever in a 3-year-old child is indicated in the article.

The month goes on

When a cough bothers a patient for a month, then most likely the reason for its formation is an allergic reaction to wool, pollen, cosmetics, and medications. Often an allergic cough turns into bronchial asthma; this is caused by past illnesses such as the flu. Therefore, it is very important to identify the allergen and try to protect yourself from irritating factor. But if the cough goes away but the sputum remains, you should definitely see a doctor.

The video explains what to do if your cough doesn't go away. effective remedy From cough:

You can learn what to do when you have a runny nose, cough, or stuffy ears from this article.

But a lingering cough may also indicate the presence of a respiratory infection. These symptoms bother the patient for a month, since the inflammatory process is still concentrated in the body. Other causes of a lingering cough may include the following diseases:

Therapeutic measures

A lingering cough requires immediate treatment, otherwise it can develop into a more serious pathology and become chronic. Treatment of cough depends on the cause that provoked its formation.

How to treat a cough without fever with yellow sputum is indicated in the article.

Treatment of dry cough

If a patient has been bothered by a dry cough for a long time, the consequence of which could be ARVI, then after visiting the hospital, the doctor will prescribe you medications that affect the cough center:

You can find out why cough occurs in the morning by reading this article.

These include:

To eliminate dry cough you can use homeopathic remedies. To prepare the most effective one, use a tablespoon of honey and lemon juice. The dosage should be determined by a doctor.

How to treat green sputum when coughing, indicated in the article.

If a wet cough does not go away

With a prolonged wet cough, it is very important to remove phlegm from the bronchi, since coughing with phlegm is very dangerous to health. For these purposes, you must adhere to the following recommendations:

Does not go away after bronchitis

It often happens that after treatment for bronchitis for 14 days, the patient still has a cough. This indicates that something is wrong in the body. To prescribe effective therapy, it is worth undergoing diagnostics again. To treat residual cough, the doctor uses the following techniques:

strengthening defenses:
phototherapy,
ethnoscience;
physiotherapy,
massage treatments.

An adult has a cough to the point of vomiting; you can read what to do about it in this article.

The video explains what to do if a dry cough does not go away:

Therapeutic exercises or massage are of great benefit in the treatment of prolonged cough after bronchitis in both adults and children. You can perform such manipulations at home. The effect of such therapy is aimed at improving sputum discharge, as a result it is possible to speed up recovery and restore the normal state of the bronchial tree. Gymnastics includes squats and bends. As for massage, patting and tapping movements are used here.

What could be the reasons when a dry cough does not clear the throat is indicated in this article.

If it does not go away after a cold and is accompanied by attacks

Any lingering cough, if accompanied by a runny nose, is a symptom of an untreated inflammatory process that occurs during a cold. The disease can be cured with inhalations and rinses. But positive impact they exert on early stage Acute respiratory infections, but they cannot eliminate a lingering cough. Here it is first necessary to establish the cause of the pathology, and then prescribe treatment.

Massage

To eliminate residual cough after a cold, a vibration chest massage will help. It will help remove mucus and quickly clear the lungs of accumulated mucus. The manipulation should be performed by an experienced doctor.

Why a dry cough occurs without signs of a cold can be found in the article.

Antibacterial therapy

An antibiotic should only be used on the recommendation of the attending physician. The choice of medications should be based on data obtained from x-rays and bacterial analysis sputum. If there is no bacterial infection, then treatment will include alternative therapeutic methods aimed at eliminating chronic cough. If a cough does not go away after a stroke, you must inform your doctor about this.

After whooping cough

When a persistent cough is the cause of whooping cough, the patient must spend most of his time in bed. There are no special drugs to eliminate this symptom, so doctors prescribe other methods of traditional therapy to their patients.

Drink plenty of fluids

If you have a chronic cough caused by whooping cough, you should drink the following drinks:

Warm milk with garlic. To prepare it, take a glass of boiled milk and add a crushed clove of garlic to it.
Fig decoction with milk. Its preparation is similar to the previous option.

Massage

When a cough does not allow all the accumulated mucus to be removed, specialists prescribe a massage. Massage the upper back and chest. For these purposes, fir and pine essential oils can be used. Then it is possible to overcome the surviving bacteria in the patient’s upper respiratory tract.

Mumiyo

The presented remedy can eliminate inflammation, strengthen and restore the general condition of the patient. To prepare the composition you will need 0.1 g of mumiyo and add it to 50 ml of water. Take the medicine before meals for 10 days.

Facilities

An old cough can be treated with pharmaceutical drugs. Antibiotics, ointments and syrups are very effective, but if the cough does not go away after antibiotics, then immediately consult a doctor.

The article indicates how to treat tracheal cough.

Medicines

For an old cough, doctors prescribe a broad-spectrum antibiotic to their patients. It is also very important to take medications, the purpose of which is to dilute sputum and remove it from the body. The following medications are considered effective:

Syrups

When taking syrups, it is possible to provide expectorant, antispasmodic and antimicrobial effect. Preference should be given to drugs based on natural ingredients. Almost all syrups have a pleasant taste and aroma, so taking them is a very pleasant procedure. But during pregnancy, you should consult a doctor before taking such drugs. The most effective syrups for a prolonged cough include:

Ointments

What to smear on the chest so that the cough goes away, enough private question. Cough can be cured using badger fat. It is he who is considered the most effective method eliminating cough. It is very simple to use: rub the chest area for several days. In addition to this ointment, you can use pork, interior, and goose fat. The presented fats can be supplemented with aloe and onions. Rub the resulting composition into the chest, back, and neck. But after such a procedure it is very important to wrap yourself in a warm blanket, otherwise positive effect Can't get it.

A chronic cough is a very dangerous symptom that may indicate the presence of a serious illness. In this case, timely therapy is very important, which could not only eliminate all unpleasant symptoms, but also to overcome the inflammatory process.

ProLor.ru

Cough is a reflex reaction of the body to various irritants entering the windpipe. The cough can be acute or chronic. Acute cough usually accompanies various respiratory diseases, for example, bronchitis or pneumonia. A chronic cough that does not go away for quite a long time manifests itself much worse.

Typically, chronic cough develops in smokers. If it suddenly develops in a person who does not abuse cigarettes, it is worth thinking about the fact that this person has a chronic respiratory disease. Rarely, a chronic cough may occur if tumor process, affecting the respiratory tract, as well as with concomitant diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Accompanying symptoms of persistent cough

The main signs of a cough that does not go away for more than a month are dry and sore throat, dry wheezing and nasal congestion. Most often, the development of a chronic cough indicates that the patient has bronchial asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Asthma is characterized by the presence of dry wheezing, a feeling of congestion, and expiratory (on exhalation) shortness of breath. Rarely, there have been cases where the only symptom of asthma was cough. COPD, in turn, manifests itself with symptoms of asthma, to which are added signs of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Long lasting and persistent cough is quite stressful for the body. Against this background, intra-abdominal pressure may increase significantly. Because of this, rib fractures are quite common. Occasionally, urinary incontinence may occur. A debilitating, prolonged cough that does not go away is usually accompanied by headache and sweating; abscesses on the mucous membrane of the lips are possible.

If you can find out the cause of a chronic cough, treating it is usually not difficult. The only caveat is that such a cough cannot be completely eliminated; symptomatic therapy It only slightly suppresses cough symptoms.

The following groups of drugs are usually used to treat prolonged cough:

As you can see, there are quite a lot of remedies for treating chronic cough. It will not be difficult for anyone to choose the medicine they need in order to use it most effectively to treat cough.

kashelb.com

What does a persistent cough mean in an adult?

Constant cough in an adult: normal or pathological? Any cough that does not go away for a long time, for example, for a month or more, should alert everyone. A cough in an adult is a protective reaction of the body that occurs for a specific reason, so everyone conscious person must identify the provoking factor and choose options for eliminating it.

In most cases, people go to the doctor when severe advanced diseases are already diagnosed, and the cough becomes prolonged, and the person cannot even clear his throat.

What can cause a persistent cough?

In medical practice, it is customary to distinguish between infectious and non-infectious causes of severe cough.

Non-infectious include:

Chronic forms of rhinitis, sinusitis, sinusitis, in which the nasal mucosa is constantly swollen. Sputum does not come out and descends into the bronchi and trachea.
Due to the consumption of excessive amounts of spices, acidity in the stomach may increase and heartburn may occur. It may manifest itself as a cough.
Allergic reactions of the body to irritants. In this case, the cough will be dry and prolonged.
The body's reaction to certain medications which have already caused addiction.
Polluted air in the workplace or in a populated area.
Diseases of the cardiovascular system.
Presence of tumors in the airways or lungs.

Types of prolonged cough in adults

With any cough, the manifestations will be different. Therefore, it is worth knowing that there are several types of pathology:

Intrusive. It is characteristic of diseases or inflammations in the larynx. This cough is usually long-lasting and appears on initial stage colds. When the patient has recovered, but the immune system has not been restored, the cough continues to appear and is more of a protective reaction of the body.

If at this stage you don’t help the immune system recover, then the cough will go straight to the bronchi. This leads to the development of acute bronchitis, which takes a long time to treat, and in many cases becomes chronic. If proper treatment is not provided, a prolonged cough causes deformation of the bronchial walls, which leads to asthma, lung abscesses and pneumonia.

When visiting a doctor, many patients report pain in the side, shortness of breath, elevated temperature that accompany the main symptom.

A cough with wheezing or whistling is characteristic of whooping cough.

Barking - tracheitis or laryngitis.

Most often, this cough torments the patient at night or early in the morning. There have been cases where suffocation occurs due to improper treatment or its ignoring. An attack of dry cough with tracheitis or laryngitis can last up to 1 hour.

If the cough provokes hoarseness, a decrease in the tone of the voice, then this may indicate the development of tuberculosis.

ARI, acute respiratory viral infection has an obsessive cough.

Coughing around the morning is characteristic of bronchial asthma. There are attacks of suffocation. Doctors emphasize that this type of cough should only be treated, as it can be fatal.

Mental disorders are characterized by a metallic dry cough during eating, talking and have a sudden effect.

Treatment of dry cough in adults

Smoker's cough

Almost all smokers are diagnosed with chronic obstructive disease, which can cause lung cancer.

Tobacco smoke contains a large number of harmful substances, many of them are diagnosed as poisons for human body. When inhaling smoke, irritation of the bronchial mucosa occurs, while some remains inside and settles on the organ itself. This provokes inhibition of the normal functioning of the epithelium. After a short period of time, the epithelium generally ceases to perform its function - pushing harmful substances to the surface, and the bronchi absorb everything that cigarette smoke gives them.

This situation leads to chronic inflammation of the bronchi of a non-infectious nature.

Considering that the bronchi lose their normal ability to fight and cleanse themselves, the addition of any infection will not cause any particular difficulties. In smokers, there have been many cases of a combination of infectious and chronic bronchitis, which overlap each other. These circumstances cause a long course of the disease and recovery itself.

There are several options for treating a smoker's cough. Using traditional medicine It is necessary to consult a pulmonologist. Mucolytics and expectorants are mainly used for treatment. If, during diagnosis, an infection is found in the patient, a course of antibiotics is prescribed.

You can use traditional methods for treatment. Enough to use herbal teas from oregano, coltsfoot, thyme, licorice root, marshmallow, plantain, calendula.

Warming and rubbing help a lot.

Visit to a Russian bathhouse, therapy using essential oils help relieve irritating cough.

Only quitting cigarettes can completely cure a smoker's cough.

Dry cough with allergic reactions, tracheitis and laryngitis

In order to successfully treat prolonged cough due to such manifestations, it is necessary to accurately determine the causes. All activities should be carried out only after consultation with a doctor.

Patients with persistent cough should be provided with:

constant drinking, preferably decoctions of medicinal herbs;
to relieve spasms, you can stock up on medicinal lozenges, which include components to activate the glands and swallow saliva;
carrying out inhalation with saline solutions;
carry out regular ventilation and wet cleaning at home so that the air in the room is constantly humidified.

Worth knowing! It is forbidden to take antitussive and expectorant medications at the same time, as there have been cases of relief of phlegm in the bronchi. This leads to the development inflammatory processes.

From traditional medicine, inhalations can be used. Care must be taken when choosing inhalation solutions when allergic cough. Herbs and oils can provoke additional allergic reactions and only worsen the patient’s condition.

Inhalations are good for everyone soda solution. They help transform a dry cough into a wet one, thin out mucus and remove it out.

What are the dangers of not treating a persistent cough?

Prolonged reflex coughing of various types is dangerous for the human body and can lead to serious complications:

Myocardial infarction. Since a prolonged cough has a detrimental effect on the functioning of the bronchi, it develops or takes on chronic nature infection. Inflammatory processes in the bronchi also affect nearby organs.
Such manifestations can cause psychological and psychosocial problems. It is difficult for a person to be in public places or at work for a long time. If you need to work with your voice, then this becomes impossible altogether.
A prolonged cough in most cases causes shortness of breath, so it decreases physical activity, which leads to other diseases in the body.
Severe attacks can cause bleeding in the brain. Due to the fact that the patient constantly strains the muscles and blood vessels in the head and body, the blood vessels in the brain lose their ability to work correctly.
May cause inguinal and umbilical hernias.

Despite the fact that cough at first glance seems like a minor disease, it can cause complications and a lot of problems. Therefore, only timely treatment and diagnosis can return the body to normal life without any unpleasant symptoms.

lor03.ru

What to do if the cough does not go away, and what are its causes?

Are you tormented by the fact that your cough won't go away? Are you tired of a constant sore throat? Do you find it difficult to breathe? This disease can and must be fought! So what is a cough?

Coughing is a natural protective reaction (reflex) of the body to any irritant that prevents the free passage of air, as well as to inflammation of the respiratory tract. A prolonged cough is a cough that lasts more than 4–8 weeks. This cough does not go away quickly, because it can be one of the signs of such dangerous diseases as bronchitis, tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchial asthma and lung cancer. If the cough does not go away for a month, visit a TB doctor first. According to statistics, approximately 20% of the adult population suffers from a cough that lasts 3-4 weeks, or even more, which is a good reason for an immediate visit to the doctor, because It is not so much the cough itself that needs to be treated, but the underlying disease that caused it. Fortunately, in most cases this cough can be successfully treated. Many medications are available without a prescription and can be taken without consulting a doctor.

What if the cough does not go away even after a course of treatment? You can additionally use folk remedies. There are many methods to combat this painful symptom.

To relieve cough, use phlegm thinners. An excellent way is to drink plenty of hot drinks. In addition, a saline solution for gargling helps. To prepare it, stir a little salt in warm water. Gargle with the solution every hour. This procedure enhances expectoration, and the lungs will work at full capacity. Use products whose effect is aimed at expanding the air passages. Medicines with a bronchodilator effect can speed up the process of cleansing the bronchi. Being in a room with dry air negatively affects the lungs, irritating them and increasing unpleasant symptoms; the cough does not go away and gets worse. Therefore, you should breathe humidified air, because... it penetrates the lungs more easily. One of the best ways in the fight against prolonged cough is the use of essential oils. With their help (in the form of inhalations) you can significantly relieve unpleasant symptoms. Their use increases expectoration. It is necessary to choose oils that will soften the mucous membrane of the airways and promote the separation of sputum. These oils include benzoin and lavender or marjoram oil, as well as frankincense. You can already buy it in pharmacies ready mixture for inhalations.

To soften a cough, you can take honey mixed with a small amount of onion or garlic. A very effective, but not very pleasant way. If you smoke, then to relieve a lingering cough, you should give up this bad habit. A dry cough does not go away due to temporary smoking cessation, try to eliminate it from your life. And the risk of cancer will decrease. When the cough becomes easier, you should not return to your previous diet, if it included eating a lot of sweets, dairy products, starchy foods (cakes and buns), such a diet lowers the body's resistance to infection, reduces immunity and allows the cough to prolong. In cases where the cough stubbornly refuses to stop, especially when it comes to a child, professional help is needed.

The doctor will justify the need additional examination, will prescribe medications that are suitable for you, and explain preventive measures. And, if you carefully follow his recommendations, then the chance that the cough will leave you is quite high.

A long cough occurs very often in people, and this does not depend on the social status or wealth of the individual. When it doesn’t go away for a week, they write it off as a cold and rarely worry about it. Just what to do when an incessant reflex action becomes obsessive and lasts for a whole year? What if 5 years or more? It should be noted that there are a large number of diseases in which a lingering cough is observed. It can last for several months and then disappear for six months. Such ailments include allergies to pollen, chronic bronchitis, etc.

A lingering cough may be a manifestation of sluggish pneumonia. If the reflex action does not go away for a month, you should definitely seek help from a doctor. This must be done even if the person is completely sure of the cause of the involuntary act. The thing is that a long-lasting cough can appear due to the simultaneous influence of several causes. They can only be recognized by taking specific tests. 3 weeks, 6 weeks or 6 months is a long time during which the disease can transform into a more severe form of the disease.

That is why doctors advise that you always come for an appointment two weeks after the onset of the reflex act, even if other symptoms, such as high fever, sore throat, and runny nose, are absent. You can often hear complaints that a person is coughing and cannot stop. This condition can last for 2 weeks or for many years. What causes a long cough? Is it possible to avoid its onset and what to do about it?

Persistent cough: visible manifestation of the symptom

A persistent cough can develop regardless of age. Very often, there are no serious reasons for its appearance. A lingering cough in an adult can last for several years without causing much discomfort. In this case we're talking about about a reflex act that accompanies lovers of smoking and alcohol. These bad habits negatively affect the entire body as a whole. Most of all, they harm the smooth functioning of the respiratory tract.

When a cough does not go away for a long time, you need to analyze the visible manifestations of the reflex act, that is, what it is:

The jerky, forced action is very intrusive, it continues almost without stopping. This happens during the peak development of a viral disease, an attack of asthmatic, involuntary act.
A lingering cough does not stop for several months, although drug treatment for pneumonia or bronchitis has long been completed. The fact is that in this situation, such an effect can be observed for almost 5 weeks or more. This is due to the fact that the antitussive receptors have not yet fully recovered from the destructive effects of viruses and bacteria, and any, even the most insignificant irritant, for example, smoke, a pungent odor, can cause an involuntary reflex action that torments people.
A strong expectorant cough is observed in chronic bronchitis during its exacerbation, cystic fibrosis.
A dry reflex act, which does not go away even after taking mucolytics, indicates a chemical effect on the respiratory tract. Here we are most likely talking about poisoning with harmful vapors or inhalation of substances in the form of suspensions. Most often, this reaction is observed among workers in hazardous industries.
If a persistent cough lasts more than six months, then this may indicate serious illness like pulmonary tuberculosis. This diagnosis is verified by undergoing fluorography and submitting sputum to detect the concentration of Koch's bacillus in it. It should be noted that it is present in small quantities in the body of every person. With a decrease in immunity, tuberculosis can develop even without contact with people who have open form illness.

A wet cough that lasts for a long time is a signal that negative changes are occurring in the body. It can be a symptom not only of viral diseases, but also of diseases of the cardiovascular system, and talk about the appearance of nervous disorders. However, in most cases, we are still talking about residual effects after pneumonia and chronic bronchitis.

Causes of prolonged cough

It is necessary to highlight following reasons, which have a significant impact on the appearance of a long, lingering cough:

It turns out that a lingering cough can last more than a month, six months, a year or even several years. Moreover, it is very difficult to completely get rid of this symptom. In order to achieve such a result, it is necessary to know exactly the cause of the disease. A full medical examination can help with this.

Why doesn't a dry cough go away? Causes of dry cough in children and adults

Acute - which after a few days turns into wet or goes away
Prolonged – which lasts from 3 weeks to 3 months
Chronic – which lasts more than 3 months.

Let's figure out why a dry cough does not go away for a long time, what diseases cause a dry cough.

The main causes of dry cough related to the respiratory system

The most common causes of dry cough are inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract, caused by viruses and pathogenic bacteria.

If a dry cough does not go away for a long time during an acute respiratory viral infection, influenza or other infectious disease, this may be caused by:

firstly, because the human immune system is significantly weakened
secondly, that there are provoking factors that affect the duration of a dry cough, these include: smoking and drinking alcohol, very dry air in the room and taking insufficient fluids during a cold or viral disease.
thirdly, the addition of a secondary infection or complication after a viral disease, when bacterial bronchitis, pneumonia, tracheitis, pharyngitis, etc. develop.

Atypical forms of pneumonia

Whooping cough, measles, false croup

Whooping cough can cause a dry cough in children and adults. Whooping cough is considered to be a childhood infectious disease, although vaccinations have reduced the incidence of whooping cough among children, but they do occur, and in weakened adults, cases of whooping cough are also sometimes recorded. With this disease, the convulsive cough is so strong that it often leads to vomiting. In this case, you should take antitussives for dry cough, such as Sinekod, Libexin, Bronholitin, etc.

In addition to whooping cough, among childhood diseases characterized by a severe dry cough are measles and false croup. Measles, in addition to coughing, is also characterized by rashes on the skin and mucous membranes (see symptoms of measles in children). With false croup, the inflammation process involves the vocal cords, larynx, trachea and bronchi, so it is characterized by a barking cough. Children under 3 years of age are more susceptible to this disease.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a formidable disease, which in recent years has also become epidemic, not only among people of a low social level, as is commonly believed, but also among wealthy segments of the population, with the development of favorable factors for its progression. Constant nervous tension, stressful situations, lack of adequate nutrition and good rest, addiction to various depleting diets can lead to the development of tuberculosis even among businessmen and people of high social status.

As for dry cough, its cause may be tuberculosis of the lungs, bronchi or trachea, larynx. It begins with a dry, unproductive cough, obsessive coughing, weakness, while the body temperature rarely exceeds 37.3-35.5; most often it rises to low-grade levels and only in the evening.

Tuberculosis can cause dry cough in adults as well as in children, which is especially dangerous because tuberculosis today is not the same tuberculosis that was 40 years ago. Now a large number of drug-resistant forms of this terrible disease are being registered, which require longer and more expensive treatment, and in combination with other chronic diseases in the patient or HIV infection, lead to death.

Laryngitis, pharyngitis, tracheitis

are also common causes of dry cough. With pharyngitis, the pharyngeal mucosa is involved in the inflammatory process, and with laryngitis, the laryngeal mucosa is involved. Both of these diseases can be both acute and chronic; the cough is dry, barking, debilitating, and worsens at night. With frequent inhalation of dusty, dry, cold air, as well as the presence of irritating gases and vapors in the air, tracheitis can develop - both acute and chronic. This also causes a painful dry cough.

Diseases of ENT organs

Oncological diseases of the respiratory organs

Causes of dry cough not related to inflammatory processes in the respiratory system

Allergic cough

In recent decades, the number of people suffering from various allergic reactions among the Russian population has significantly increased, this is especially noticeable in children. Almost all children today have some kind of allergic reaction, if not a food allergy, then an allergy to dust, wool, pollen, mites, etc. Hay fever is a seasonal allergy to the pollen of flowering plants, which appears in the spring and summer; a very large number of people suffer from hay fever. number of people, it is manifested by sneezing, runny nose, lacrimation, itching of mucous membranes and dry allergic cough.

Bronchial asthma

a very common disease characterized by a chronic painful dry cough and asthma attacks. This disease cannot be considered only a disease of the bronchi; it is a severe pathology that is associated with a general disorder of the immune system, nervous system and allergies.

Exposure to toxic substances in the home

household chemicals containing chlorine, washing powders, etc., the presence of an abundance of exhaust gases in the air of cities and megacities leads to the occurrence of an allergic dry cough. Also pay attention to when your dry cough started; maybe it has something to do with the purchase of new furniture, new renovations, or the purchase of household appliances. Modern industry, especially the production of plastic, furniture, building materials, even children's toys, often uses an abundance of toxic chemicals that can irritate the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx and bronchi, causing chronic chemical poisoning. If there are a lot of such products in the room, they are new and emit an odor - this may be the cause of a dry cough.

Worm infestations

Sometimes cases of ascariasis are recorded, in which, during the migration of ascaris larvae through the pulmonary circulation, they linger in the lung tissue, causing an annoying dry cough. Getting into the lungs, trachea and bronchi, they cause irritation of cough receptors; the migratory phase for ascariasis is 8-14 days (see roundworms - symptoms and treatment).

Professional dry cough

Some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract

Some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract provoke a dry reflex cough without fever; it occurs after eating with diverticula of the esophagus, esophageal-tracheal fistula, reflux esophagitis.

Taking certain medications

usually ACE inhibitors, which are used to lower blood pressure and treat other cardiovascular diseases. In 20% of patients, these medications cause a dry cough, if it disappears after discontinuation of the drug, therefore, this cough was a side effect of the drug taken.

Cardiovascular diseases and heart failure can also cause dry cough

The cause of the allergy, the provocateur of allergic reactions, can be determined using tests ordered by an allergist. You should take any manifestations of allergies seriously, since it is not just a dry cough, runny nose or rash; with a severe allergic reaction, anaphylactic shock and Quincke's edema can occur, which can be fatal without timely medical attention.

Dry cough does not go away for a long time in an adult: reasons, treatment

A cough is the body’s response to contact with the mucous epithelium of the respiratory tract by any irritant of a viral or bacterial allergic nature or evidence of the presence of a foreign body in the respiratory tract.

The causes of a dry cough should be sought among multiple diseases or allergens.

A dry cough in an adult may occur due to a common cold or as a result of cancer. Even heart pathologies can cause this phenomenon.

But in this case we are talking about reasons that are somehow related to the human respiratory system. So, cough can be caused by the following diseases:

ARVI – parainfluenza, influenza, MS infection;
atypical pneumonia;
pleurisy;
measles;
pharyngitis;
whooping cough;
tracheitis;
laryngitis;
sinusitis, sinusitis;
false croup;
tuberculosis;
bronchial asthma;
oncological diseases of the respiratory system.

The main factors of dry cough not associated with inflammation in the respiratory system:

And now about each reason in more detail.

ARVI is a whole list of acute respiratory viral diseases of the respiratory system that have similar symptoms and morphological features. A long and severe dry cough is characteristic of parainfluenza, influenza and MS infection.

The flu is a viral infection that affects the nose, throat, and in some cases the lungs. The main signs of the disease are:

dry cough;
general weakness;
fever;
runny nose;
a sore throat.

Parainfluenza is an acute respiratory viral infection of an anthroponotic nature. Signs of this disease include:

dry, barking cough;
runny nose;
feeling of dryness and sore throat;
subfebrile (up to 38℃) or normal body temperature.

Respiratory syncytial infection is a viral pathology that usually affects lower sections respiratory tract. This disease is characterized by a dry cough, which turns into a wet cough within 3-5 days. The patient's temperature is either normal or low-grade.

If a person experiences this syndrome, the patient must be provided with bed rest and plenty of warm fluids. To relieve acute symptoms, symptomatic treatment is carried out, antiviral drugs are prescribed and medications are given to reduce fever.

If a dry cough does not go away after a few days, the patient is prescribed expectorants.

It is necessary to treat ARVI, since an advanced disease can result in serious complications. Therefore, you need to contact a medical facility.

Pleurisy, pneumonia, whooping cough

If the cough does not go away for a long time, it may indicate a disease called pleurisy. Pleurisy is a disease of the pleural layers, accompanied by the deposition of fibrin on them or the accumulation of exudative fluid in the pleural cavity.

What syndrome is characteristic of pleurisy?

Treatment can only be carried out by a doctor after establishing the true cause of the disease. Most often, the patient is prescribed antibacterial or anti-tuberculosis drugs. As complementary therapy Anti-inflammatory, immunostimulating and desensitizing medications may be prescribed.

Atypical pneumonia is a disease with an unusual symptomatic course. The factors that provoke atypical pneumonia are atypical pathogens.

Symptoms of the disease:

dry cough that does not go away for a long time;
headache;
fever;
extrapulmonary symptoms characteristic of these pathogens.

Since drugs for most atypical pathogens have not yet been created, treatment is carried out with antibiotics broad action, antivirals and glucocorticosteroids.

Whooping cough is an infectious disease transmitted by airborne droplets. The pathology is bacterial in nature and is accompanied by a spasmodic paroxysmal cough that does not go away for a long time. This symptom is accompanied by a slight runny nose and a slight increase in temperature.

Treatment consists of taking antihistamines, bronchodilators and antitussives.

Pharyngitis, measles, laryngitis, false croup

Cough does not go away for a long time even with pharyngitis; moreover, this is the main syndrome of this disease. In addition to this symptom, pharyngitis is characterized by a sore throat, sore throat, and low-grade fever.

The disease should be treated with inhalations, gargling, systemic antibiotics and plenty of warm drinks.

The next cause of dry cough is measles. This disease is caused by a virus and is accompanied by the following symptoms:

dry, persistent cough;
a significant increase in body temperature, up to 40℃;
runny nose;
photophobia;
characteristic rash;
hoarseness.

Treatment consists of taking mucolytic, antipyretic, expectorant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial drugs. Measles has serious consequences, which is why if you suspect this pathology, you should immediately call a doctor at home. Measles itself never goes away; adequate treatment is required.

Laryngitis is an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the throat. The disease can be suspected by the following signs:

long and severe dry cough;
difficulty breathing;
loss of voice;
soreness;
there is pain when swallowing.

Treatment for laryngitis is quite simple. The patient should limit himself in conversations and irritating spicy food, drink as much warm liquid as possible, inhale and gargle. To prevent the disease from becoming chronic, it must be treated.

False croup is a special type of laryngitis in which a syndrome of decreased lumen of the larynx and spasm of the glottis occurs. It becomes difficult for the patient to breathe, and attacks of suffocation most often occur at night.

This condition can result in asphyxia, which is why when these signs appear, it is necessary to urgently call an ambulance. What to do while waiting for the ambulance to arrive?

The patient needs to be given good access to fresh air, a foot bath and a warm drink.

If the cough does not go away for a long time, and it occurs in attacks, accompanied by pain in the throat and behind the sternum, sputum production and a slight fever, the doctor may well suspect the patient has tracheitis.

Treatment for this disease consists of antibiotics and antiviral agents. If the body temperature is high, the patient is given antipyretic drugs, and if there is no temperature, steam inhalations should be done.

Bronchial asthma is chronic illness, which manifests itself not only in damage to the bronchi, but also in decreased immunity, nervous system disorders, and allergies. The main symptom of the disease is a painful dry cough, which is accompanied by attacks of suffocation.

To relieve them, bronchodilators are prescribed; as maintenance therapy, the patient must constantly take:

leukotriene receptor antagonists;
Cromons;
glucocorticosteroids.

Most often, asthma does not go away, but remains with a person for life.

Sinusitis, sinusitis, rhinitis - these three diseases are the causes of “postnasal drip syndrome”. From time to time, mucus flows down the wall of the pharynx from the nasal sinuses; it stimulates the cough receptors, resulting in a dry cough. In this case, treatment should be aimed at the underlying disease.

Tuberculosis is a very dangerous infectious pathology, the causative agents of which are mycobacteria. Unfortunately, the disease can be asymptomatic for a very long time and be discovered completely by accident during a medical examination.

Symptoms of tuberculosis:

dry cough that does not go away for a very long time;
general fatigue, weakness;
sweating;
low-grade fever;
sudden weight loss.

Treatment of tuberculosis is very complex and requires the use of anti-tuberculosis multicomponent chemotherapy.

If a patient has a dry cough, this may indicate cancer of the throat, trachea, bronchi or lungs. Therefore, if you have a persistent cough, you should definitely contact a doctor, who will refer the patient to full examination and, in accordance with the diagnosis, prescribe adequate therapy.

Some patients, knowing that they have cancer, prefer to do nothing and make a big mistake. Modern treatment methods make it possible to get rid of cancerous tumor, if measures are taken on time.

What else can cause a dry cough? Today, a huge number of people suffer from allergic manifestations. Allergies to dust, flowering plants, chemicals, animal hair are accompanied by:

itching;
cough;
lacrimation;
runny nose

With this nature of the cough, the patient is prescribed antihistamines.

A dry occupational cough can appear in people employed in industries where the air is overloaded with numerous toxins that irritate cough receptors. In such a situation, there is only one solution to the problem - changing jobs.

Gastro-esophageal reflux – painful condition when stomach contents suddenly flow into the esophagus or throat. Gastric juice begins to irritate the mucous membrane, resulting in a cough.

This condition is accompanied by painful swallowing, heartburn, and chest pain. Treatment consists of diet, prokinetics, antacids and antisecretory drugs.

A dry cough can occur as a result of a foreign body entering the respiratory system. In addition to coughing, suffocation may occur, so with such a problem you should immediately run to the doctor. What is a prolonged cough? and the video in this article will tell you what to do with it.

Cough is not an independent disease. It occurs as a reaction of the respiratory tract to foreign particles that enter them. This is why many experts do not recommend using antitussive drugs. Stopping a cough means leaving something in the respiratory system that shouldn’t be there. It is better to try to help the body remove unnecessary elements, and for this the cough must be strengthened. Antitussive drugs are prescribed only to those who have recently had surgery or to those who begin to vomit from a dry cough or if the person begins to choke.

Why does the cough not go away for a long time?

The cause of a dry cough is that a viral, infectious or allergic pathogen has entered the respiratory system. After some time, the dry cough becomes wet. Sometimes this transition is delayed and the person coughs for about three weeks. If the cough lasts more than three weeks, it is called chronic.

Why does the cough not go away for a long time? It all depends on the immune system. If it is strong, then the cough will go away in a couple of weeks, or maybe sooner. If the body is weakened by illness, poor lifestyle, bad habits and poor nutrition, the cough prolongs.

In order to get rid of a cough, you need to understand what caused it. To do this, you need to donate blood and sputum for analysis.

If a convulsive cough leads to vomiting, then doctors recommend taking antitussive drugs such as Libexin, Sinekod or Bronholitin. A dry cough occurs with measles. This disease is characterized by rashes on the mucous membranes and skin.

False croup is manifested by a barking cough. This disease affects the larynx, ligaments, trachea and bronchi. Tuberculosis is considered a terrible disease of epidemic nature. If a person does not rest, eats poorly and is constantly stressed, then he is at risk.

Causes of persistent cough

If after ARVI, sinusitis or pharyngitis the cough does not go away for a long time, this means that the disease was not fully treated. Laryngitis is characterized by a barking cough, which is accompanied by hoarseness. The reasons for a persistent cough may be that chlamydia, fungi, or cytomegalovirus enter the body.

Why doesn't a dry cough go away?

More than fifty diseases are accompanied by cough. The nature of the cough is not always infectious; sometimes it is a sign of an allergic reaction.

Why does dry cough not go away in adults? The reasons may be bad habits, viruses or working conditions. If a person is not choking from coughing, then there is no need to panic. When coughing leads to suffocation, you need to sound the alarm and call an ambulance.

Why doesn't my cough with phlegm go away?

If you are not careful about your health or do not treat acute respiratory diseases correctly, then the cough can not only drag on, but also cause serious complications.

Why doesn't my cough with phlegm go away? The allergy is characterized by a runny nose, rash, cough and watery eyes, in addition, some experience scratching and shortness of breath. You should not treat a cough on your own, since such symptoms can also occur with bronchitis, laryngitis and other diseases. A person will begin to be treated for allergies and remove the allergen from the body, but it turns out that he has pneumonia. Therefore, it is better not to take risks, but to seek help from a doctor.

Why doesn't my cough go away after antibiotics?

Antibiotics are not a panacea; they cannot cure all diseases. If the cough persists for a long time, some doctors prescribe a course of antibiotics. However, this does not always help. Antibiotics can even make a wet cough dry and worsen the situation.

Why doesn't my cough go away after antibiotics? The point is that a person may not comply with the dosage. The reason may also be due to an incorrectly selected drug.

Children often get sick, and cough and runny nose are their favorite diseases. The fact is that the child’s immune system is imperfect and until the baby gets sick with every conceivable and inconceivable disease several times, his immunity will not become stronger.

Those children who attend kindergarten get sick much more often than those who sit at home. It is a fact. But many parents have noticed that at school these children are less exposed to viruses and bacteria. That is, you need to get sick in kindergarten in order to study calmly later.

Why doesn't my child's cough go away? There is no clear answer to this question. Everything here is strictly individual. One child has an allergy and a cough that does not go away because the allergen is nearby all the time. Another child caught a cold and his parents began to treat him incorrectly. The third one actually choked on a persimmon peel, and it stuck to his respiratory tract. In order to relieve your child of a cough in a short time, you need to go to the doctor and get a prescription. If the mother is experienced and knows her child well, then she does not have to follow all the doctor’s instructions; she can create her own treatment regimen based on medical prescriptions. Doctors are people too and they make mistakes.

When treating a cough, the main thing is to drink plenty of fluids, regularly ventilate the room in which the patient is located, and eat properly. If the child does not have a fever, then you can take him for a short walk. Fresh air circulating in the lungs will help remove viruses and bacteria faster.

TO antiviral drugs and antibiotics can only be used as a last resort, and only after a doctor prescribes it. After all, a cough can be due to a runny nose, when mucus flows down the throat, it causes irritation and the child begins to cough. In order to get rid of such a cough, you just need to cure your runny nose. That is, rinse the nasopharynx and drop drops, for example, “Protargol”.

For some respiratory diseases, inhalations are prescribed, which can be either steam or medicinal. For any cough, you can inhale mineral water. Inhalations with Lazolvan or Berodual can only be done if the doctor prescribes it. After all, inflammation located in the upper part of the respiratory tract can fall lower. Tracheitis can develop into bronchitis or pneumonia, diseases that are sometimes fatal.

In order to relieve your child from coughing, you can spread finely chopped garlic around the house. Often give your baby tea or warm milk with raspberry jam or honey. Linden tea helps a lot.

And the main thing is not to panic and trust your own intuition. If the parents have their first child and there are no grandparents nearby who have enormous experience behind them, then it is better to immediately consult a doctor. If the child is not the first and the mother has seen children get sick many times, then you need to try to understand what caused the cough and begin treatment.

Protracted (long-lasting) cough in adults

When a lingering cough develops in adults, in 80% of cases, an experienced physician can determine the cause of the disease after the first examination and prescribe adequate treatment. The basis for issuing a conclusion is a visual examination of an adult (throat, listening) and his story about what exactly he feels when he coughs, whether sputum is produced or not, what color and consistency it is, etc.

Unfortunately, in most cases, people do not take the appearance of a reflex act seriously, which, in turn, leads to the appearance of chronic diseases. In this case, cough in adults takes on a completely different character. It becomes strong, deep and can last for more than a month. There are other reasons why a prolonged reflex act does not go away quickly. These include ailments that provoke the development of a jerky reflex action of a chronic nature.

Protracted cough in adults caused by allergies

The reason for the constant and obsessive reflex act is the entry into the body of tiny particles that cause a negative reaction. The most common allergens include the following substances: flour, animal hair, plant pollen, insect chitin, house dust, food. If such a lingering cough in adults is not treated, it can last 5-6 months or more. In addition, the disease can develop into a more severe form – asthma. In this case, the persistent reflex act has a paroxysmal character, often ending in a feeling of suffocation.

Persistent cough in adults caused by smoking

The reason for the appearance of frequent involuntary actions in adults is the refusal of a healthy lifestyle. Smoking cigarettes or hookah has a very negative impact on work respiratory system person. Harmful substances and tars enter the lungs along with smoke. Their removal from the respiratory system is a rather lengthy process. A long, lingering cough in the morning is the price that smokers pay for their bad habit. In this case, a protracted reflex act lasts not 2-3 months, but the entire conscious life. Even if you give up cigarettes, the involuntary effect will stop no earlier than after three weeks.

Protracted cough in adults caused by serious illnesses

If the reflex act is prolonged and lasts 2-3 weeks, then we can talk about serious disorders of the cardiovascular system or gastrointestinal tract. A characteristic sign of such ailments is the presence of a lingering cough in the morning or evening, after the person’s body takes horizontal position. When coughing, sputum is released, it is foamy.

People who have had pneumonia note that a lingering cough after stopping medication lasts 7 days. In some cases, a longer period was recorded - 4 weeks. This residual phenomenon disappears within approximately 1-2 months. If it persists for a longer period of time, you should seek help from a doctor, as this may indicate that the disease has entered a chronic stage.

In addition, the cause of a lingering cough in adults may be oncological lesions of the larynx, trachea, bronchi or lungs, or tuberculosis of the respiratory tract. To confirm such severe diagnoses, additional specific examinations are necessary.

Wet expectorant cough: symptoms, causes

A wet cough is a reflex action that is accompanied by expectoration of sputum. It may be preceded by a dry involuntary act that appears due to a cold or hypothermia. By the way, it is quite enough for a child to simply breathe in the frosty air. Strong expectorant cough does not always bring relief to a person after coughing. Here everything depends on the nature and duration of the jerking act.

There are a significant number of varieties of wet reflex action. An involuntary act may be characterized by the presence of the following significant symptoms:

The type of sputum produced.
Duration of cough.
Is it chronic and other properties.

It is necessary to accurately determine the cause of the expectorant involuntary act, since the effectiveness of its treatment directly depends on this. An analysis of the existing symptoms will help determine exactly what caused the reflex action. Moreover, it is necessary to consider not only those of them that are present at the moment. It is necessary to take into account the etiology of the development of the disease, that is, how external signs have changed over time.

An involuntary act of sputum production may indicate not only the presence of any diseases, but also indicate normal functioning of the respiratory system. In both cases, mucus discharge may occur. However, healthy person its volume is significantly lower. A severe wet cough can be caused by various reasons:

Regardless of what exact reason triggered the appearance wet cough, you must undergo a medical examination. Even if its origin is natural, you should not refuse a full examination and testing.

The main symptom of a strong wet cough is the release of mucus during a reflex action. However, this is far from the only external manifestation involuntary act. The presence of the following accompanying symptoms indicates severe illness:

It turns out that although sputum production is observed during any productive reflex act, it is imperative to accurately analyze the accompanying visible signs. A wet cough may be a symptom serious illnesses, and not a common cold or ARVI. To establish correct diagnosis in some cases, it is necessary not only to be examined by a specialist, but also to undergo specific tests.

Types of mucus with a wet cough

A productive involuntary act is carried out with expectoration of sputum. Based on its consistency, color, and volume, the doctor is able to make a preliminary diagnosis. Doctors now identify several types of mucus produced during a wet cough:

Green - indicates the presence of pus and streaks of blood. As a rule, in this case the reflex action is accompanied by wheezing, high fever, and shortness of breath.
Brown – this color indicates the presence of blood in the sputum.
Transparent - present in cases where the natural cleaning function of the respiratory system does not work properly.
White mucus with lumps - occurs with pneumonia, the development of which is caused by the influence of a fungus.
Yellow sputum is released when smokers and hookah lovers cough. There is another reason why mucus of this color may form - the onset of bronchitis or pneumonia. It is worth noting that yellow sputum may contain blood.
Foamy - occurs with chronic bronchitis, cardiac asthma, pulmonary edema.
Rusty - lobar pneumonia.
Bloody mucus is secreted during tuberculosis and neoplasms of the respiratory tract, bronchiectasis.

Sputum analysis is one of the most important studies in the diagnosis of pulmonary diseases. It is on this basis that medical conclusions are made.

Wet cough: age characteristics

If in adults a wet cough, as a rule, appears due to colds or viral diseases, then in children and the elderly it can begin due to many other reasons. That is why doctors pay close attention to the occurrence of an expectorant reflex act in children and old people. In children, involuntary action can be provoked by the following reasons:

Presence of snot. If you put drops in a child’s nose, then it’s damp. frequent cough will stop.
Teething. This physiological process accompanied by copious secretion of saliva, which irritates the cough receptors.
Milk getting into the wrong throat.

In old age, constant involuntary action occurs due to the influence of the following factors:

Age-related changes in the body. They are accompanied by significant discharge of clear mucus. The reason for this is the loss of the respiratory tract's natural ability to cleanse itself.
The accumulation of mucus in the lungs leads to the development of emphysema.
Chronic bronchitis, the cause of which is a significant impairment of pulmonary ventilation. Severe shortness of breath is observed, and cyanosis develops due to difficulty in exhalation.

Only a specialist can determine the exact cause of wet cough in older people. The main difference between a prolonged involuntary act caused by age-related changes in the body, provoked by exposure to pathogens, is the absence of leukocytosis. That is, the number of leukocytes in the blood is almost normal.

Based on duration, the following types are distinguished:

acute form (the symptom is pronounced for 2-3 days, gradually disappears);
protracted form (cough does not go away for a week or more);
chronic form (cough does not go away for a month or more).

From the dry type the symptom after a few days transforms into wet type. If this does not happen, the attacks continue to bother the patient; most likely, the correct treatment was not selected from the very beginning.

Protracted or chronic cough and its causes

To correctly diagnose the cause that causes the attacks, you need to see a doctor, get an x-ray of your lungs and undergo several tests.

Most often, cough does not go away due to illness upper section respiratory tract organs.

Correctly diagnosing the disease of which you have become a symptom is an important step in drawing up an effective treatment plan.

Acute respiratory infections and influenza are among the most common diseases of the respiratory system and can cause long-term symptoms. This is facilitated by reduced immunity during illness.

A protracted type of symptom may appear due to an untreated disease; at times it is caused by the body at the level of a reflex (with hypersensitivity lungs).

Sometimes a dry cough does not go away due to the development of complications of a cold: bronchitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, otitis media, pneumonia, etc. A prolonged form may appear due to diseases such as:

Less often, in children and adults, the cough does not go away due to problems in the functioning of the cardiovascular system, heart failure.

The manifestation of a chronic form of the symptom can provoke an allergic reaction.

People prone to chronic respiratory diseases tend to suffer from it for a long time, bronchial asthma, respiratory allergies, occupational diseases respiratory organs (teachers, miners, chemical production workers).

Often a dry cough in an adult does not go away due to smoking. Bronchitis is one of the most common reasons for the transformation of the disease into a chronic form.

Taking certain medications and using a number of chemicals in everyday life can cause a prolonged dry cough.

Possible complications

Long-term ones are very dangerous for asthma patients, because... can provoke a deterioration in the patient’s condition and lead to suffocation. They are always accompanied by fluctuations in blood and arterial pressure.

Prolonged attacks can cause hypotension or hypertension in a person. Sometimes, due to overstrain of the abdominal muscles and increased pressure in the chest during forced exhalation, patients experience hernias. With such prolonged attacks, small vessels are injured, the patient may cough up bloody mucous discharge.

For smokers, a prolonged cough is especially dangerous, because... may cause lung collapse. This happens in people suffering from bullous emphysema. In patients whose bones have lost strength due to certain diseases, coughing can even lead to rib fractures.

After finding out the reason why the cough does not go away, treatment should be started immediately.

Treatment and prevention

To eliminate this symptom, you first need to treat the disease that causes it.

What to do if the cough does not go away for several days? Give preference to gentle methods of combating the disease, traditional medicine. Can be used:

herbs with medicinal properties;
various rinses with herbal decoctions;
compresses;
herbal teas.

If the cough does not go away for a long time, physiotherapeutic treatment is effective. It includes various inhalations and rinses.

When carrying out such procedures, alkaline and salt solutions(half a teaspoon of soda or salt per glass of boiling water), medicinal herbs, milk and honey (remember that honey is a strong allergen).

You can use a nebulizer inhaler. The nebulizer is used not only to treat diseases of the respiratory system, but also to prevent them. Treatment with a nebulizer has a number of advantages:

absence age restrictions, ease of use, high efficiency and effectiveness;
no side effects.

Sprays used for coughs do not give such an effect, because... the medicine is not sprayed so evenly and cannot penetrate all parts of the nasopharynx. The effect of the drugs in such throat sprays is very short-lived.

When it is not possible to diagnose the disease for any reason, the doctor prescribes medications that suppress the symptom:

To treat a protracted form of wet cough, mucolytics are used to thin the sputum.

The effectiveness of therapeutic measures can be complemented by massage. With its help, the bronchi are better cleared of mucus, and muscles that are in increased tone relax.

To get rid of prolonged mucus discharge, drainage or ultrasound therapy is sometimes used.

Treatment of chronic symptoms requires an integrated approach.

It is better to prevent the occurrence of a protracted form of the symptom by adhering to a number of the following simple rules:

consult a doctor on time and follow all his recommendations;
get rid of bad habits, smoking;
spend more time in the fresh air;
maintain personal hygiene.

Such simple measures have a positive effect on the body in case of any disease.

Cough is one of the symptoms that may indicate the development of the most various diseases– from upper respiratory tract diseases to cardiovascular diseases.

But, unfortunately, for most people this does not make a cough a condition that requires careful attention. And the person continues to endure this “trouble” until it begins to thoroughly ruin his life.

Typically, awareness serious problems health problems occur when a cough does not go away for a month or more.

What can cause such a prolonged cough and what can be done about it?

Causes of prolonged cough

As already mentioned, there are a huge number of diseases that can cause a long-lasting cough. But the most common cause of this condition is improper treatment of acute respiratory diseases or complete absence attention to them, as a result of which the inflammatory or infectious process becomes chronic or complicated by other pathologies.

But still, what are the most common diseases that can cause a cough that does not go away for several weeks?

Allergy

By allergy we usually mean a condition accompanied by a runny nose, lacrimation, hives and other, more obvious symptoms. But hypersensitivity immune system to any substance is capable of manifesting itself and thus causing a constant or regular sore throat, a feeling of shortness of breath, shortness of breath and cough. The main danger is that these same symptoms are very similar to the symptoms of bronchitis, laryngitis, tracheitis, pneumonia, so you should not “write them off” to allergies and try to relieve them with antihistamines until the examination.

Advice: If for some reason you cannot consult a doctor, keep yourself an “Allergy Diary”, where you write down everything you eat and drink (including medications), and what you do during the day. At the same time, record the time and duration of coughing attacks in your diary. If it is truly an allergy, you may be able to see a clear relationship between a certain food or activity (such as "socializing" with the neighbor's dog) and the coughing episode.

Chronical bronchitis

The second most common disease that causes a long-lasting cough. The cough itself is characterized by a small amount of sputum, which makes it unproductive: coughing episodes are usually long and “strained”, and end with the release of a small amount of thick mucus. Sputum in chronic bronchitis is often colored dirty yellow, which indicates stagnation of mucus in the bronchi and the presence of an infectious process. Body temperature is most often within normal limits, but can occasionally rise to 38-38.5 degrees.

Advice: With chronic bronchitis, there is no place for self-medication. This is not only dangerous, but also pointless: without knowing what pathogens cause the disease, and what is the reason for the unproductive cough (small amount of sputum, its increased viscosity, atrophic phenomena in the bronchial epithelium, etc.) it is impossible to select an effective treatment.

What to do: cough does not go away for two weeks

Such a cough, as a rule, becomes a consequence of interrupted treatment for influenza, laryngitis, pharyngitis, acute bronchitis and is characterized by its unproductiveness. This means that during a cough there is no secretion of sputum, and the coughing episode itself does not bring relief to the patient, and even vice versa: it causes a burning sensation and rawness in the chest.

To treat this condition, you need to contact a therapist, who, based on the results of the examination and medical history, will prescribe medications(expectorants, antitussives, antibacterial or others) or will give a referral to an otolaryngologist or pulmonologist.

What to do: cough does not go away for a month

A cough that lasts a month or more is an alarming symptom that may indicate severe damage to the bronchi and lungs, as well as an “exacerbation” of the cough reflex. In the second case, a long course of any respiratory disease can increase the sensitivity of the bronchial mucosa and their receptors. As a result, the mechanism of the bronchi’s reaction to the presence of mucus is disrupted: instead of “triggering” a certain volume of mucus, the bronchi try to push out even the smallest amount of it. This leads to debilitating coughing attacks that do not bring relief.

Regardless of the reasons for such a cough, he needs emergency treatment, since in addition to complications of the disease that caused it, prolonged cough can cause atrophic processes in the bronchial mucosa. In this case, the ciliated epithelium loses the ability to “promote” mucus to the exit of the bronchi, and this causes stagnation: accumulations of mucus create favorable conditions for the reproduction and growth of pathogens that can support the inflammatory process in the bronchi, spread to the lungs and penetrate through the bloodstream into others organs. This condition requires lengthy and complex treatment, which can be easily avoided by consulting a doctor in time.

Cough does not go away after flu

The cough that occurs after the flu most often indicates a complication in the upper and middle respiratory tract. This may be bronchitis, laryngitis, laryngotracheitis.

Laryngitis and laryngotracheitis are characterized by a “barking” cough, without sputum production and hoarseness, and with bronchitis the patient may feel pain and tightness in the chest, which occurs after a coughing attack.

A cough during acute bronchitis is accompanied by copious secretion of sputum, and during chronic bronchitis the cough is most often unproductive and does not result in the release of mucus.

Cough with sputum does not go away for a month

Coughing with sputum is considered productive and is one of the mechanisms that allows the bronchi to get rid of accumulated mucus containing foreign particles and microbes. But such a cough is “useful” only under the following conditions:

mucus is transparent, of normal viscosity;
episodes of coughing occur only in the presence of provoking factors (running or fast walking, forcing frequent and deep breathing movements, staying in a dusty room, etc.);
Coughing episodes are short-lived (2-3 coughs at a time) and bring relief.

But in any case, a cough that lasts more than a month, even if it meets the listed characteristics, is a reason to undergo an examination.

Important: if the sputum you cough up is bloody or foamy, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible. Such a symptom may indicate disturbances in the functioning of the heart, in which blood is thrown into the lungs, or pulmonary tuberculosis.

Diagnosis for prolonged cough

When visiting a doctor with complaints of a prolonged cough, the patient is prescribed:

fluorography - x-ray examination of the chest cavity. This is necessary to exclude damage to the lungs by tuberculosis or the presence of tumors in them;
bronchoscopy – examination of the condition of the mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi;
laboratory tests of blood, urine, and bronchial sputum samples to identify inflammatory processes, as well as to determine the pathogen responsible for the infectious component of the disease.

In each individual case, treatment is prescribed that takes into account the causes of prolonged cough. This means that the focus is on the disease of which this cough is a symptom.

In addition, to alleviate the patient’s condition, drugs are prescribed that suppress the cough reflex, thin the mucus, and improve expectoration.