What are the differences in the reasons behind a cough with phlegm and a cough without phlegm?
Coughing can be said to be a very common symptom. Coughing is caused by upper respiratory tract infections such as colds, pharyngitis, and rhinitis. Coughing is also caused by lung diseases such as tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and even lung cancer. Performance. There are also some people who will cough non-stop when winter comes. They take antitussives and anti-inflammatory drugs over and over again, but unfortunately they have little effect.
How does a cough occur? What are the differences between coughs caused by different diseases? Below, Dr. Huang will answer them one by one for everyone.
Coughing is actually a self-protection mechanism of the body, which is a respiratory stress response caused by external stimulation or inflammation. When our respiratory tract is irritated by gas, dust, etc., we will usually have symptoms of transient cough, which is unavoidable. However, if the cough is caused by an illness, it may not be that simple.
It turns out that coughs with phlegm and coughs without phlegm are different!
In clinical practice, common cough symptoms can be phlegm or non-phlegm, namely phlegm and dry cough, which are actually two different symptoms. Experienced doctors know that it may be easier to treat patients with sputum, while it may be more troublesome for patients with dry cough. Of course, this is not absolute, nor does it mean that dry cough is more serious. It just means that dry cough may manifest itself as repeated attacks and may not be cured for a long time.
1. First, about expectoration. Phlegm is pathological mucus excreted by the lungs and airways. If the human body is invaded by harmful microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, the bronchial mucosa will be damaged and a large amount of sputum will be produced, and phlegm generally contains a large number of bacteria, viruses, etc. That is to say, expectoration is often related to infectious diseases, such as upper respiratory tract infection, pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc. Therefore, for patients with expectoration, the pathogenic bacteria can be found through bacterial culture and treated with corresponding antibiotics to effectively relieve symptoms.
In addition, expectoration can also be seen in patients with heart diseases such as left heart failure and pulmonary heart disease. It is caused by high pressure blocking venous return and causing pulmonary blood stasis, which is manifested as pink foamy sputum. Most of these patients are caused by the exacerbation of COPD, and their sputum cough is long-term. They need to actively cooperate with doctors to control the development of the disease and relieve symptoms.
2. Secondly, about dry cough. The cause of dry cough is relatively complex, and many patients have dry cough that occurs year-round or seasonal, especially in autumn and winter. In fact, dry cough may also be caused by phlegm that is too deep or too sticky to be coughed up. Generally, it will get better after coughing up phlegm-reducing medicine. As for true dry cough, common causes can be divided into two types: infectious and non-infectious factors.
Among them, infectious factors commonly include damage to the respiratory mucosa caused by infection, such as colds, pharyngitis, tracheitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc., which generally appear in the early or late stages of the disease, when phlegm is not produced or is rapidly excreted. When disappearing.
Non-infectious factors are more complicated. Dry coughs in such patients often appear inexplicably and persist for a long time. In this case, the first thing to consider is allergic cough. The onset of this type of patients often has obvious seasonality, mostly in autumn and winter, because they are too sensitive to climate change and cold air. Patients may also experience repeated irritating dry coughs when exposed to harmful gases, dust, dust mites or eating spicy food. These are all manifestations of allergic cough. Patients often experience symptoms such as itchy nose, itchy eyes, tears, and runny nose at the same time, and often have a history of allergies such as allergic rhinitis.
In addition, from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, long-term dry cough may also be caused by liver yin deficiency and lung qi deficiency. It is common in patients who have been sick and weak for a long time and have coughed for a long time. This is because long-term coughing damages the lungs, or Dryness syndrome caused by deficiency of liver yin. The symptoms of this type of patients are dry cough without phlegm or less phlegm that is sticky and unable to come out, accompanied by symptoms such as weak cough, fatigue, easy fatigue, shortness of breath, sweating, etc., and the cough will worsen at night. In addition, taking certain drugs (such as antihypertensive drugs) can also cause dry cough symptoms, which will be relieved after stopping the drug.
The last dangerous cough that needs to be emphasized is cough caused by lung cancer.
This kind of cough also often manifests as an irritating dry cough, but in addition to a long-term attack, it also manifests as ineffectiveness of conventional medications, accompanied by symptoms such as hemoptysis, inexplicable weight loss, chest and back pain, and fever. If such a situation occurs, Remember to go to the hospital quickly!