<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nAn\noccasional cough is normal\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit helps clear up irritants and secretions from lung\nand prevents infection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A cough that\nlasts for weeks, however, is usually the result of a medical condition. In many\ncases, that involves more than one cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfollowing factors are responsible for the majority of chronic cough cases,\nwhether alone or in combination: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Postnasal drip:<\/strong> If your nose or sinuses produce extra mucus,\nit will leak your throat back down and stimulate your cough reflex. This\ndisorder is also called upper airway cough syndrome (UACS).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAsthma:<\/strong> An asthma-related cough can come and go with the seasons, occur\nafter an infection of the upper respiratory tract or get worse when you are\nexposed to cold air or certain chemicals or fragrances. A cough is a principal\nsymptom in one form of asthma (cough-varying asthma).<\/p>\n\n\n\nGastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD):<\/strong> Stomach\nacid flows back into the tube which connects your stomach and throat\n(esophagus) in this common condition. The continuous irritation can cause\nchronic coughing. In turn, coughing\nworsens GERD \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a vicious cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\nInfections:<\/strong> A cough can persist long after other symptoms of pneumonia, flu,\ncold, or other upper respiratory tract infections have vanished. For adults,\npertussis is a widespread but under-recognized cause of chronic cough, also\nknown as whooping cough. Chronic cough may also occur with fungal infections of\nthe lung, tuberculosis (TB) infection or lung infection with nontuberculous\nmycobacterial organisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\nChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): <\/strong>COPD involves\nchronic bronchitis and emphysema, a chronic inflammatory lung condition that\ninduces obstructed airflow from the lungs. Chronic bronchitis can cause\ncoloured sputum to develop in a cough. Emphysema causes shortness of breath and\ndestroys lung (alveoli) air sacs. Most people suffering from COPD are current\nor former smokers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBlood pressure drugs:<\/strong> In certain people, angiotensin-converting\nenzyme (ACE ) inhibitors, typically prescribed for high blood pressure and\nheart failure, are known to cause a chronic cough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Less commonly, chronic cough may be caused by:<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Aspiration (food in adults; foreign bodies in children)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bronchiectasis (damaged, dilated airways)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bronchiolitis (inflammation of the very small airways of the lung)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cystic fibrosis<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Lung cancer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Eosinophilic nonasthmatic bronchitis (airway inflammation not
caused by asthma)<\/li>\n\n\n\n - Sarcoidosis (collections of inflammatory cells in different parts
of your body, most commonly the lungs)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/span>Risk factors<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nOne of the\nmain risk factors for chronic cough is being an active or former smoker.\nFrequent exposure to second-hand smoke can also cause coughing and damage to\nthe lungs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Complications<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nHaving a\npersistent cough can be exhausting. Coughing can cause a variety of problems,\nincluding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Sleep disruption<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Headache<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Dizziness<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Vomiting<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Excessive sweating<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Loss of bladder control (urinary incontinence)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Fractured ribs<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Passing out (syncope)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Prevention<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n- Don’t smoke,
as smoking is the most common cause of chronic cough.<\/li>\n\n\n\n - Talk to your
doctors about managing your asthma, postnasal drip, or GERD to avoid chronic
cough symptoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n - Stay away
from others known to be sick with bronchitis or pneumonia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n - Eat fruit.
Research suggests diets high in fruit fibre and flavonoids can prevent chronic
cough that is productive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n - Make sure
you and your child get whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A chronic cough is a cough that lasts in adults 8 weeks or longer or 4 weeks in children. A chronic cough is something more than just annoyance. A chronic cough may disturb your sleep and fatigue you. Chronic cough may cause serious cases of vomiting, lightheadedness and even rib fractures. Although the issue that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coughing-sneezing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}