Tortured dry cough: what to do? Painful cough: what to do when a cough torments

It can happen to both adults and children. Most often, the term "painful cough" characterizes the dry, ineffective cough that occurs during colds. However, coughing can also be a sign of allergies or bronchial asthma, when bronchospasm prevents you from breathing normally, and provokes coughing all the time. Have you been terrorized by a painful cough for a long time? What to do when a cough torments, find out in this article.

Why does a painful cough occur?

Cough is distinguished by the time of manifestation and the causes of occurrence. A painful cough in the morning is most often experienced by smokers, as well as people suffering from chronic bronchitis. In the evenings, those who are sick with SARS, acute bronchitis, tracheitis or pneumonia cough. The most terrible is a nighttime excruciating cough, as it may indicate neoplasms in the lungs or tuberculosis.

Also, cough is different for the reasons that provoked it. A persistent, chronic cough occurs with pleurisy, periodic coughing fits are characteristic of bronchitis. A very loud, barking excruciating cough occurs with whooping cough, and a quiet and short one with pleurisy.

For the most part, cough appears due to microorganisms that live on the mucous membranes in the upper respiratory tract of a person. They live peacefully there, but when the immunity weakens, they begin to attack their carrier. And the immune system is weakened with colds. A sore throat indicates that microbes have begun to multiply, and other symptoms of the disease will soon appear. Cough in this case is a reflex act, which is intended to cleanse the lungs and bronchi from accumulations of microbes and their metabolic products (mucus).

Other causes of a painful cough

There is also a painful cough caused by the central nervous system. It occurs when the brain and the respiratory center are simultaneously excited. Such arousal can be triggered by allergies, excitement or nervous strain.

Although most coughing is a natural process, sometimes you should be wary of it. For example, with high blood pressure, against the background of a prolonged cough, it can lead to vasospasm and even a stroke. Nocturnal cough that occurs with attacks can be a manifestation of bronchial asthma. Crackles in the lungs that can be heard even from a distance may be evidence of pneumonia. Therefore, with any manifestations of a painful cough, it is best to consult a doctor.

Types of excruciating cough

The cough may be wet or dry. A wet cough is designed to remove mucus and sputum from the bronchi, and a dry cough is initially caused by a spasm, and is designed to remove foreign bodies. A painful cough also occurs at the beginning of colds, when sputum has not yet been formed, and the disease is already progressing. Such a cough requires the use of expectorants or antitussives.

The former help to form sputum more quickly, and contribute to their removal from the bronchi. The second group of cough medicines blocks the cough reflex at the level of the brain or in the bronchi themselves. The main thing is not to use these drugs in the treatment of cough at the same time, as this can lead to congestive formations in the lungs. Sputum will be collected, and the cough reflex, suppressed by drugs, will not provoke their discharge.

What to do when you have a cough

It is better to take antitussive drugs not during colds, but if you are suffering from a cough from allergies or bronchial asthma. Such a cough will not become productive anyway (sputum discharge will not begin), therefore it is advisable to simply stop it and your torment.

What to do when you have a cough due to a cold? It is better to translate a cold cough into a productive one, and do it as quickly as possible. Plentiful drinking is well suited for these purposes, especially alkaline water or milk with soda, mustard plasters and expectorants. The faster you achieve free discharge of sputum, the faster the recovery will go. This is due to the fact that the mucus formed in the bronchi poisons the body with toxins, and it is more difficult for it to cope with the disease. After the cough becomes productive, the patient continues to be given a plentiful warm drink, and during the cough they bring him to the so-called drainage position (in which it is easiest to cough up).

Remember that a painful cough is almost always provoked by extraneous factors, whether it be dust, crumbs, smoke or pollen. Well, most often a cough occurs due to colds, when the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract are irritated and produce a large amount of mucus. A decrease in cough, as a rule, indicates the onset of remission of the disease.

There is no such disease as cough. After all, this is just a sign of some kind of ailment. Its occurrence most often indicates that the body is trying to fight the attacking microbes. Or the fact that somewhere nearby an allergen lurks, irritating the respiratory tract. It happens that the state of health is completely normal all day long, and at night a real nightmare begins - severe attacks do not allow you to sleep. Nocturnal dry cough can even cause sleep disorders. And inadequate rest leads to increased irritability and nervousness.

Causes

A dry cough at night can be triggered by an onset of a cold. A sick person who occupies a horizontal position in bed is not able to cough well. A mucous secret accumulates in the respiratory tract - because of it, there is a need for coughing.

If a dry cough in an adult lasts more than 2 weeks, this indicates the development of an infection in the body. And when it does not stop for more than 2 months - that the disease has become chronic.

In some cases, the probable cause of a cough is determined by its characteristic features:

• barking - laryngotracheitis, whooping cough;
• deaf - obstructive bronchitis;
• paroxysmal - pleurisy;
• with an anguish - a neoplasm in the trachea or in the larynx.

The most common causes of coughing at night are respiratory viral infections, bronchitis, whooping cough and bronchial asthma.

Sometimes it happens that a dry cough at night does not let you sleep, and the temperature is normal, and there is no runny nose. In this case, many simply ignore this symptom and do not go to the doctor. They begin to sound the alarm only after a couple of weeks or after a month of nightly coughing.

It is important to visit the doctor in a timely manner. But how do you know which one to go to? The answer to this question will give the cause of the obsessive symptom that has appeared.

A prolonged nocturnal cough without fever can signal:

• the need to finally quit the addiction - smoking;
• esophagitis;
• allergies;
• tuberculosis;
• heart failure;
• oncological illness;
• venereal disease.

When the respiratory organs are not involved

Most people think that people cough at night only when there are some problems with the respiratory system. However, a dry paroxysmal cough may appear for a reason that has nothing to do with the condition of the respiratory tract.

Often such attacks are long, painful and even suffocating. Because of them, the quality of sleep is seriously affected. You can take antitussive syrup for weeks on end, but they will still be repeated. What to do in this case?

Many do not know that dry cough during sleep can cause stomach disease - esophagitis. The level of acidity of gastric juice in a healthy person is usually normal. When it rises, some of what is in the stomach is thrown into the esophagus. As a result, heartburn is felt in its lower section. Cough receptors are also located in the same zone.

Note that bouts of "gastric" cough disturb only at night, when a person is in a horizontal position. It is very easy to diagnose it by the already mentioned heartburn. To solve the problem, you should consult with a gastroenterologist.

With some cardiovascular diseases, a dry cough also torments. It has a very great resemblance to bronchial - the same suffocating and hysterical. Therefore, it is called "cardiac bronchitis." This symptom may be accompanied by shortness of breath and blue nasolabial triangle.

To check whether a person really began to cough at night due to heart problems, during the next attack, he needs to sit down. If it has become much easier, you can immediately make an appointment with a cardiologist. It is impossible to eliminate such a cough without curing the underlying ailment.

How to treat

Before prescribing treatment, the doctor must establish the correct diagnosis. And for this, the patient needs to pass a couple of tests and undergo several examinations. Most often, with complaints of a dry nocturnal cough, the doctor prescribes:

• general or detailed blood test;
• fluorography (X-ray) of the chest;
• bronchography;
• fibrogastroduodenoscopy (if esophagitis is suspected).

The specialist selects a therapeutic course for the patient, taking into account the clarified cause of the cough. If it is a respiratory disease, he prescribes expectorants, anti-inflammatory drugs and, if necessary, antibiotics.

How to calm a nocturnal cough without taking pharmaceutical drugs? Traditional medicine gives some effective advice. And yet it is advisable to use them in combination with drug treatment, so as not to start the disease.

Summing up

If a dry cough began to bother you at night due to the adverse effects of external factors, it is very easy to eliminate it. In this case, it is enough to use a humidifier, regularly ventilate the room and do wet cleaning.

Before proceeding with the drug treatment of night cough, it is necessary to visit a doctor. After all, if a serious pathology is diagnosed, some drugs may be contraindicated. Remember that only a specialist should prescribe any medication.

Each of us will surely agree that one of the most unpleasant symptoms of a cold is a cough. First, it is often painful. Secondly, it interferes with normal physical activity, a long, prolonged cough is literally debilitating. Thirdly, it gives a certain psychological discomfort to a person - an unpredictable bout of loud coughing during a work meeting, lecture or lesson at school attracts everyone's attention and makes you feel uncomfortable.

It is not surprising that a person who has been coughing for more than a couple of days is ready to buy any cough medicine that is advised to him. Forgetting or not even suspecting that the causes of cough are different, which means that this unpleasant condition should be treated in different ways, depending on what exactly caused it. This does not mean that everyone gives bad advice, however, before buying cough medicine, it is better to find out what causes it.

What causes a cough?

Cough is a reflex reaction of the body that occurs when the respiratory tract is irritated by certain factors - it can be dust, foreign bodies, sputum, inflammation due to the activity of viruses and bacteria. In response to irritation of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, the cough reflex is triggered.

Therefore, cough should not be considered as a disease, it is just a symptom of any respiratory disease - acute respiratory infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, laryngitis, tracheitis and even whooping cough.

It would seem that it is impossible to distinguish a cough with laryngitis from a cough with pneumonia, but this is not so. With each of these diseases, cough has distinctive features:

• a rough "barking" cough, which is accompanied by a hoarse voice, is most characteristic of laryngitis;
• if during a coughing fit there is an unpleasant burning sensation or pain behind the sternum, then most likely this is a manifestation of tracheitis;
• cough in which purulent (green-yellow or gray color, specific smell) sputum is discharged is most characteristic of pneumonia (pneumonia) or bronchitis;

Therefore, if you have a cough, do not rush to self-medicate, it is better to consult your doctor first.

Special mention deserve such types of cough as cough with whooping cough and "smoker's morning cough".

The first is characterized by prolonged bouts of weak cough, which are not stopped by anything - the fact is that the whooping cough pathogen acts directly on the epithelium of the upper respiratory tract, thereby constantly irritating it, which causes coughing.

As for the morning cough of a smoker, this is a characteristic sign of chronic smoker bronchitis. It manifests itself in morning bouts of coughing, which begin immediately after getting out of bed and are accompanied by the discharge of viscous sputum.

Why "dry" and "wet"?

Everything is very simple, wet - it is also productive, it is a cough, which is accompanied by sputum discharge; dry - unproductive cough, this is a cough without sputum.

Which cough is more dangerous and how to deal with it?

Wet cough - although it is an unpleasant symptom, it is much more useful than dry cough, because the sputum that accumulates during the illness must be evacuated from the respiratory tract, which the body does. The fact is that together with sputum, both the microorganisms contained in it and dead leukocytes are removed, which contributes to a speedy recovery and reduces the risk of complications. If the body itself cannot completely evacuate sputum, then mucolytic and expectorant drugs come to its aid, which reduce the viscosity of sputum and contribute to its speedy discharge.

As for dry cough, this symptom is quite painful and unpleasant. An attack of dry cough does not bring a person any relief, but only tires him. In addition, repeated attacks of dry cough only further irritate the respiratory tract, which, in turn, leads to an increase in coughing attacks (or even to such an unpleasant complication as mucosal rupture). Therefore, such a cough must be controlled.

The most effective for the treatment of dry cough are drugs of central action. Which do not affect the function of the ciliated epithelium and not the viscosity of sputum, but directly on the cough center in the brain. All such drugs belong to one of two groups - narcotic and non-narcotic.

Narcotic drugs, despite their high effectiveness against dry cough, have a significant drawback - almost all of them contain codeine. Codeine is a substance from the opiate group, which, in addition to having a fairly large number of side effects, is also addictive.

Recently, non-narcotic antitussive drugs of central action have been replacing codeine-containing drugs, for example, such a drug as Sinekod belongs to them. Its name comes from the Latin for "no codeine".

Also, like codeine-containing drugs, "Sinekod" acts directly on the cough center of the brain, but unlike codeine, it is devoid of a number of significant drawbacks. "Sinekod" does not depress breathing, is not addictive and does not affect intestinal motility in any way. At the same time, due to the modern active substance (butamirate citrate), in terms of effectiveness, “Sinekod” is in no way inferior to codeine-containing drugs. After all, "Sinekod" fights attacks of dry cough from the first application.

The drug has side effects and contraindications, before using it, you should consult your doctor.

If a person is tormented by a dry cough, what to do with such a symptom should be checked with a doctor. Dry cough is a consequence of any disease of the respiratory system. It may start with a feeling of discomfort in the throat.

When such an unpleasant symptom occurs, a person tries to get rid of it and begins to pokhikuwati. This can go on for a long time, until the cough center is quiet.

The choice of medicines depends on the cause of this type of cough.

It can be determined only during a medical examination and diagnostics.

The main causes of dry cough

the reasons:

Inflammation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory organs is always accompanied by such a symptom. Depending on the location of the lesion, diseases such as:

• laryngitis;
• tracheitis;
• bronchitis;
• whooping cough;
• pleurisy;
• pneumonia;
• oncological diseases of the lung;
• tuberculosis.

How to treat this type of cough

There are several ways to stop a dry cough. Relief can come after determining the causes and choosing the right medicine. For some diseases, the doctor may suggest drugs that increase sputum discharge. In other cases, drugs that relax the cough center or relieve bronchospasm are suitable.

To treat the disease in the pharmacy network, you can buy different drugs. The trading network offers effective inexpensive drugs and expensive medicines. The choice depends only on the cause, which is determined by the doctor.

Medicines that help cure dry cough are divided into several types.

Cough suppressants can affect the cough center. These drugs contain codeine, glaucine, oxeladin, dextromethorphan, prenoxdiazine. They depress the respiratory center and can cause shortness of breath. Preparations of this action should not be given to children under 2 years of age, and up to 12 years of age they are taken only as directed by a doctor. They have an expectorant property, have a moderate anti-inflammatory effect, improve spirometry. These drugs are indicated for acute dry cough of various origins.

These include:

• codeine;
• codelac;
• syrup Codelac phyto;
• broncholithin;
• Bronchoton;
• Bronchocin;
• Bluecode;
• Libeksin.

Peripheral cough preparations based on acetylaminonitropropoxybenzene are able to suppress cough by acting on cough receptors and reducing their excitability. These include ACC and other analogues that have this abbreviation in the name.

Traditionally, for the treatment of dry cough, natural remedies of combined origin or fully synthetic ones are used, which contribute to sputum discharge. They are able to have antitussive, expectorant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory effects. These include:

• bromhexine;
• Herbion;
• Stoptusin;
• Bronchicum;
• Linkas;
• Cough tablets with soda and thermopsis herb;
• Mukaltin.

How to relieve an attack of dry cough at night

At home, an attack that began in a patient who had ARVI can be removed by folk methods.

If you suffer from a dry cough for a long time, you need to contact a therapist. Timely treatment will help cure the disease, after which the unpleasant symptom will disappear. Self-purchasing medications can lead to wasted money and to a chronic disease that needs to be treated for a long time.

Adults and children are often exposed to external influences that provoke coughing. It may not necessarily be a cold or flu, a cough may be the result of an allergic reaction.

Unpleasant odors, dust, small invisible fibers that hover in the air are all sources of problems. The cause of a painful continuous cough can even be air, or rather dry air.

Lack of moisture in a room, for example, is also a source of choking cough. It is unpleasant that most often such a painful cough overtakes at night. It interferes with sleep and normal breathing.

It is possible to avoid such a phenomenon. You need to know the basic rules and methods. What should you do if you have a painful cough?

Cough is a protective resistance of the lungs and bronchi. During a cold, many microorganisms and viruses attack our body. Our lungs try to drive them away with a cough.

It is possible to eliminate an unpleasant suffocating cough. Only first you need to know the nature of its origin.

Most often it passes quickly and without any complications. It is enough to take medications correctly and follow the instructions for treatment.

Long and suffocating is dry cough. Its main goal is to drive foreign bodies out of the body. Small organisms that penetrate the mucosa cause a lung response.

Consider the methods and methods for eliminating and treating cough of various origins.

1) Nocturnal suffocating cough can be slightly dampened by frequent changes in body position. The fact is that in the process of sleep, the body also rests. Microorganisms, harmful creatures do not sleep even at night. Because their work is intensifying.

They provoke the accumulation of sputum and actively irritate the mucous membrane, which is why a nocturnal cough occurs.

3) In addition to changing the position of the body, a glass of water with a piece of toasted sugar will help.

4) Be sure to monitor the cleanliness and freshness in the patient's room. Wet cleaning, frequent ventilation and additional humidification is required.

5) Teas and decoctions of medicinal herbs will help suppress a choking cough. The assortment is huge, but chamomile, linden, calendula, ginger, oregano and, in addition to tea, a spoonful of fragrant honey are in favor.

Drink should be warm and in large quantities..

It is especially necessary to drink a lot with a dry cough. Pharmaceutical preparations in this case, it is better to put aside. Their effectiveness is useful even with a wet cough.

6) A suffocating dry cough for a while can be eliminated in effective ways.

Gargling with herbal decoctions or saline solution will help here. You can also resort to the help of lollipops. An effective remedy for dry barking cough is a decoction of plantain.

7) The pharmacy also has dry cough syrups, but their use should be on the strict recommendation of the attending physician.

Since such drugs only suppress protective reflexes and muffle the cough at the brain level. They do not solve the problem itself, they only temporarily help to ease the symptoms.

8) Dry painful cough will help to overcome inhalation. They are made from medicinal herbs and oils - menthol, eucalyptus, linden, chamomile and others.

An important rule: inhalations can be done only when there is no temperature. If the thermometer is high, it is prohibited.

9) Dry type cough can only be a reaction to an allergic source. In this case, this source must be eliminated and a course of antiallergic drugs should be drunk.

10) It is necessary to treat a wet cough with other methods and preparations. It is worth paying attention to syrups that help with liquefaction of sputum and its easy discharge. In addition, such drugs must also have antimicrobial agents.

Traditional medicine has enough of its methods of treating a painful cough.

1) Probably the most popular is home inhalation. They make it over a pan with boiled potatoes, while covering with a blanket.

2) Rubbing at night with badger or goat fat gives an effective result.

3) In combination with other methods, it is imperative to gargle with herbal decoctions. You can prepare a miracle decoction for daily use.

To prepare it, grind the skin of the onion, add sugar, honey and water. All this is boiled for three hours.

4)Onions for coughing are useful in any form. They eat it, make decoctions, breathe over it and simply spread it around the house to inhale the aroma. It is able to kill harmful microbes and purify the air.

5) An effective remedy is a decoction of bran. They are brewed in water with the addition of sugar and consumed before meals.

6) It is useful when coughing to eat chopped hazelnuts in combination with honey. Such a delicacy should be washed down with warm milk.

7) With a painful cough, you can also do night compresses on the chest. For example, boil potatoes in the skin, mash to a pulp, add vegetable oil and a couple of drops of iodine. Apply while still warm on the chest and wrap well.

8) To combat a choking cough, you can make homemade candies from burnt sugar.

9) Rubbing black radish juice at night will also help. This product is versatile in its use in the treatment of painful coughs. Syrups and infusions are made from it.

10) Valerian will help to instantly drive away a barking cough. It is diluted in water and drunk.

11) The same effect is obtained by eating a fresh leaf of a golden mustache plant or drinking an infusion of pine buds. Traditional medicine knows countless recipes and methods.

An excruciating choking cough is just a consequence of exposure to external factors - dust, crumbs, pollen, aromas and cold symptoms (germ attacks). Therefore, it is important to eliminate these root causes and follow the elementary rules.

Keep the house fresh and clean, avoid dusty places, treat colds: plenty of warm liquids, the right medicines and traditional medicine - all this is the key to success.