Cough does not pass with an adult for two weeks or a month: what to do
Among many symptoms of cough is a complex and unpleasant manifestation. Therefore, if it does not go through a week or a month, the patient begins to worry and suspect the presence of serious illnesses.
Sometimes after the course of catarrhal disease there is a cough that does not end for a long time. At the same time, various means and methods of treatment were tried. In such a case, medical care must be treated if the cough does not go away for more than 15 days.
But why does this symptom not disappear quickly? Perhaps the body was depleted during the course of the cold and at this inopportune time it was infiltrated by an infection or a virus.
The organism can overcome viruses independently, but only if it is not weakened. Therefore, in order to successfully cure a prolonged cough, it is necessary to find out which microorganism triggered its appearance, so it is necessary to conduct all necessary studies.
Prolonged cough: causes
If the cough does not last long, for example, a cough does not last a month, then the following infections and diseases contribute to it:
- pneumocysts;
- mycoplasma;
- fungal microflora (chlamydia, candida);
- tuberculosis.
It is worth noting that the wrong, inferior or untimely treatment of such diseases leads to their progression.
All the above microorganisms can enter the body by airborne droplets, when the infected person sneezes or coughs.
The chances of infection are doubled if the adult's body is weakened or he experiences heavy workloads.
Therefore, the immune system should be strengthened, there are plenty of vegetables and fruits, sleep and play sports.
What if the cough does not stop a week?
Coughing is an involuntary exhalation reflex that occurs as a result of irritation of the laryngeal mucosa, bronchial tubes or throat and lung tissue. Thanks to this symptom, the airways are cleaned of foreign bodies, harmful microorganisms, mucus, dust and sputum.
To the reasons provoking a long cough, it is possible to carry:
- colds;
- allergy;
- emotional overstrain.
Moreover, the cough can be wet or dry, night, day, periodic, paroxysmal and so on.
Treatment of a week cough
If the cause of the weekly cough was ARD, then the doctor prescribes antitussive drugs, with this you can not 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 syndrome.In addition to antibiotics, if the week does not pass a severe cough, expectorants are prescribed on the basis of medicinal plants. In addition, the doctor can prescribe immunomodulating drugs, which activate the protective functions of the body and expel the effect of antiviral drugs.
It is worth noting that if the cough is not only not over a week, but also accompanied by pain in the chest, high temperature (38 and more), and when expectoration is allocated bloody, green or yellow sputum, then you can not engage in self-medication, but you need to quickly contact a doctor.
There are some recommendations that are important to observe when treating a prolonged cough in an adult. So that the throat is not dry, you need to drink a lot of liquid. To this end, every evening you can drink warm milk with honey.
Morse and juices are no less useful. In addition, if a dry cough does not pass for more than a week, you should drink fresh juice from black radish (three times a day for 1 tbsp. l.).
What if the cough does not stop within a month?
Why there is a long cough and what to do to eliminate it? If this symptom does not last a month, then perhaps the whole fault is the following factors:
- congenital pathologies of the lungs;
- bronchitis;
- a foreign body in the respiratory tract;
- pneumonia;
- tuberculosis;
- bronchial asthma.
For successful treatment of a long 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, it is necessary to determine its character - productive or unproductive, frequent or rare, spastic or paroxysmal and so on.
It is necessary to consult a doctor quickly if a cough with phlegm does not last more than a month and is accompanied by such signs as:
- severe swelling;
- sweating;
- nausea;
- weight loss;
- colorless, thick discharge or sputum with blood impurities;
- lack of appetite;
- dyspnea;
- heat;
- fast fatiguability;
- retrosternal pain.
In addition, a long cough can become chronic. To prevent this from happening, one should go to the doctor if the cough reflex does not stop within five days. Many people do not pay enough attention to this symptom, and even more so if it is not accompanied by weakness, runny nose and fever, but in case of no treatment the time will be irretrievably lost.
When the cough does not stop for about four weeks, it is necessary to make an appointment for an ENT, a therapist, an allergist, a phthisiatrist, and possibly a pulmonologist. Doctors after the survey will be able to determine why the cough does not stop for so long and what to do to cure it.
So, a cough lasting for a month may indicate the presence of:
- pneumonitis;
- chronic bronchitis;
- heart failure;
- bronchial asthma;
- cancerous metastases or lung cancer;
- sinusitis;
- asbestosis;
- tuberculosis;
- whooping cough;
- pleurisy;
- silicosis.
But in order to finally determine the cause of prolonged cough, additional research will be required. This can be a blood test, sputum culture on the flora, a blood test for mycoplasma and chlamydia, a Mantoux test and a lung X-ray.
In addition, a cough that lasts for more than 4 weeks is typical for smokers and people working in harmful production, where they constantly inhale mold and dust.
So, silicosis often develops in miners, asbestosis - in builders, and pnevonit - in the agricultural sector.
Treatment of a cough that lasts longer than a month
It is worth noting that without medical advice to treat a prolonged cough is inappropriate. After all, depending on the cause, a certain method of treatment is needed, for example, with heart failure it is senseless to drink antitussive syrups, swallow tablets or do inhalations.So, for the successful treatment of an incessant cough in an adult it is important to restore the water 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, it is effective to perform inhalations with cough with the addition of coniferous oil, coltsfoot, baking soda, thyme, sage and chamomile.
When productive cough with viscous secretions, you need to use drugs that dilute sputum. These drugs include mucolytics and expectorants.
And it is better, if in the basis of such means there will be medicinal plants. And with a small number of excretions are assigned expectorant syrups and tablets.
But it is worth noting that such drugs should not be taken together with antitussive drugs.
Prolonged cough
A prolonged cough is one that does not last 4-8 weeks. Therefore, a two-week cough is considered only a suspicion of a prolonged symptom.
So, if a cough for a long time does not pass, then its causes can be covered in the presence of such diseases:
- bronchial asthma;
- left ventricular failure;
- HIV infection;
- tuberculosis;
- lungs' cancer.
Still mandatory inspection of the mucous nasopharynx or pharynx. In this case, the doctor examines the discharge from the nose, confirms or excludes the presence of polyps in the nasal cavity and sinusitis, manifested by pain sensations in the projection of the paranasal sinuses.
It is worth noting that the temperature with prolonged cough may not always be elevated. It accompanies only a few diseases, such as sinusitis, tuberculosis and pneumonia.
In addition, the doctor should examine the patient's neck. In the process of investigation, such manifestations as a positive venous pulse can be detected, which indicates pulmonary insufficiency.
With an increase in the posterior or anterior cervical lymph nodes and nodes of the supraclavicular area, there is a suspicion of cancer of the larynx or lungs. And when listening you can find signs such as noise, local or scattered dry wheezes.
To get rid of a protracted cough, the most commonly prescribed drugs that activate the immune system. To this end, the patient should take funds based on rhodiola rosea, ginseng, eleutterococcus. As a rule, they are used after antibiotic therapy. in the video in this article, the expert will tell. what to do with a prolonged cough.
stopgripp.ru
What if I can not get rid of a cough?
Every person at least once a year overtakes a cold. Since childhood, unpleasant symptoms are familiar to everyone: cough, fever, runny nose, weakness, sore throat. Unfortunately, some symptoms can torment a person even after a complete, seemingly healing. The most common case, when the cold has passed, but does not pass cough. A prolonged cough can be observed for several more weeks after a cold. What is the reason for coughing and how to deal with it?Cough is a protective reaction of the body to foreign bodies that enter our body. It is included as a protective reflex, when a person choked or even inhaled through the mouth various substances, such as dust. During colds, sputum accumulates in the respiratory tract, which the body perceives as an alien body and with the help of a cough tries to get rid of it and various microbes.
Thus, it becomes clear that the cough should be treated not as a result of the disease, but as a process that helps to recover to the end. This means: it is more correct not to get rid of cough, but to make it more productive.But sometimes the cough becomes very intense, sometimes, not allowing a person to fall asleep, or even causing vomiting. In these cases, undoubtedly, measures should be taken to reduce the strength of this process.
Causes of prolonged cough
Most often, cough occurs with colds:
- flu;
- respiratory syncytial virus infection;
- adenovirus infection;
- acute or chronic bronchitis;
- pneumonia.
When a cough occurs, you need to undergo a checkup to find out the cause of his appearance
Of course, there are other serious diseases, which lead to an intense and prolonged cough. If a person does not get a cough for a month, then first you need to see a doctor, and only then start the possible self-treatment. In any case, when a person has a prolonged cough, it is necessary to do a fluorography or even an X-ray.
If a cough during a cold does not go along with the disease, then post cold cough should be treated. Usually it is accompanied by the release of viscous sputum. Treatment should be aimed at liquefying and spitting out of the respiratory tract.
Treatment of a protracted cough
It is wrong to talk about the cough treatment, because it's just a symptom. He either is removed as a symptom, or heals the disease itself, as a result of which he appeared.
- abundant drinking;
- inhalation;
- drugs that dilute sputum.
When you cough, the patient should definitely drink plenty of liquid to restore the water balance in the body. Water helps the process of liquefying phlegm and getting it out of the body.
Alkaline mineral waters, such as Borjomi or Essentuki, are especially useful. Addition to a high intake of liquids should be the right food, containing many vitamins - fresh fruits and vegetables.
Inhalation
As for inhalations, this is one of the most effective methods for relieving cough. It is not difficult to make inhalation, besides there are many different ways, and each patient can choose for himself the most accessible of them. One of the options: brew such herbs as chamomile, sage, thyme, coltsfoot, add a teaspoon of soda food and a couple drops of eucalyptus or menthol oil, and then inhale the vapors. You can administer the inhalation several times a day.By the way, essential oils are very effective in steam inhalers. You need to choose those that contribute to the dilution of sputum, softening of the mucosa of the respiratory tract.The lavender essential oil has a softening effect. Antiseptics are eucalyptus and thyme. An expectorant effect will be achieved with the use of incense and majorana essential oil. You can prepare a mixture of oils for inhalation yourself, or buy it already ready in the pharmacy.
Medicinal products
Reception of medicines at a cough should be carried out only on purpose of the doctor
As for the drugs, then it's worth to be especially careful. As in the case of other drugs, the choice of medicine should only be trusted by a specialist. Come to the pharmacy and on the advice of a pharmacist to purchase a popular expectorant is a big mistake many patients make.
In some cases, it can help, but in others it can even do harm, because a pharmacist can not deliver an accurate diagnosis. Therefore, it is worth to go to the doctor and find out what exactly is the reason for a prolonged, not passing cough.
Speaking generally about medicines, you should know that drugs for liquefying sputum are divided into mucolytic and expectorant. Mucolytics are prescribed in cases when sputum is very viscous and it is difficult to be excreted from the body. Expectorant medications are needed in situations where sputum, on the contrary, is small. They help bronchi to extract phlegm, making it more fluid. At the same time, the medicine causes a cough, so that the bronchi are cleared.
A separate group of drugs are antitussive drugs. As you know, cough is not always worth eliminating, because it helps the body to clear itself of germs and sputum. But in some cases, with a dry suffocating cough, antitussive drugs are prescribed.
Do this only a doctor, because these drugs can have strong side effects. In addition, in the presence of phlegm, the taking of these medicines must be stopped immediately. Even if you take medication for a while, the cough worries for another 1-2 weeks, then you need to see a doctor, you may need to change the treatment.
How to relieve lingering cough?
There are some simple methods that will help make the cough less painful. Using these tips, available to everyone, you can bring the sick body a lot of benefits:
- Rinse the throat with saline. Solution: warm water with a diluted teaspoon of salt. You can make this solution with baking soda and add a drop of iodine. The irritated throat will not hurt so much when coughing.
- To give up smoking. If the patient smokes, then at least for the period of treatment, it is worth to give up a bad habit, or at least reduce the number of smoked cigarettes to a minimum.
- Humidified air. If there are special devices for humidifying the air, then you must use them, and if not, you can simply put a couple of cans of water in the corners of the room. Humid air easily penetrates into the lungs, and dry - irritates them, causing coughing attacks.
- With a dry cough, you need to use a spoonful of honey. Strengthen the effect of honey with finely chopped garlic or onions. This remedy softens the throat and has an antibacterial effect.
Thus, with the right approach to treating the disease, you can effectively get rid of the cough, eliminating its complications. It must be remembered that any disease that has not completely disappeared can have serious consequences for the body.
NasmorkuNet.ru
Why does not a dry cough go away? Causes of dry cough in children and adults
Coughing is a reflex, just like breathing itself. And his appearance indicates that there was some kind of pathogen - allergic, infectious, viral, that is, the cause of dry cough, serious or not very, which causes irritation in the respiratory tract and causes the body to clear them from the - 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 common cold to tuberculosis, oncology, bronchial asthma or heart disease. Most often, a dry cough lasts for several days, moving into productive, moist with sputum, but can sometimes be prolonged. The duration of dry cough is divided into:
- Acute - which after a few days passes into the wet or passes
- Prolonged - which lasts from 3 weeks to 3 months
- Chronic - which lasts more than 3 months.
Let's see why the dry cough does not last a long time, which diseases are the cause of dry cough.
The main causes of dry cough associated with the respiratory system
The most common causes of dry cough are inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract, which are caused by viruses and pathogenic bacteria.
In this case, a strong organism with a strong immune system cope on its own, and if the immune response to the virus or infection is weakened, then antibiotics or antiviral drugs come for help with ARVI and influenza.
When parainfluenza and the flu should always consult a doctor, as these are very insidious diseases, which recently become very aggressive, leading to a mass of complications. How to distinguish the flu from ARVI read in our article.
If during the acute respiratory viral infection, flu or other infectious disease, a dry cough does not last for a long time, it can be caused by:
- firstly because the immune system in a person is significantly weakened
- secondly, that there are provoking factors that affect the duration of dry cough, they include: smoking and drinking alcohol, very dry air in the room and taking inadequate amounts of fluid for a cold or viral illness.
- thirdly, the attachment of a secondary infection or complication after a viral disease, when bacterial bronchitis, pneumonia, tracheitis, pharyngitis develops, etc.
Diseases of the pleura and lungs can also be accompanied by a dry, painful cough - pneumonia, pleurisy. Most often there is a high fever, shortness of breath, 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 occur for a long time, periodically recur. To differentiate the pathogen that caused pneumonia or bronchitis, you can take a blood test using ELISA.
Pertussis, measles, false croup
Pertussis can cause dry cough in children, and in adults. Pertussis is considered to be a childhood infectious disease, although vaccinations have reduced cases of whooping cough in children, however, they occur, in addition, weakened adults also occasionally have cases of whooping cough. With this disease, a convulsive cough is so severe that it often leads to vomiting. In this case, you should take antitussive remedies for dry cough, such as Sinekod, Libeksin, Bronholitin, and others.
In addition to pertussis, among childhood diseases characterized by a strong dry cough, measles and false groats can be identified. Measles, other than cough, is also characterized by rashes on the skin and mucous membranes (see Fig. symptoms of measles in children). With false croup, the vocal cords, larynx, trachea and bronchi are involved in the inflammation process, so it is characterized by a barking cough. This disease is more likely to affect children under 3 years old.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a formidable disease that has also been epidemic in recent years, not only among people of low social level, as it is commonly believed, but also among the wealthy strata of the population, with the development of favorable factors for its progression. Constant nervous tension, stressful situations, lack of adequate nutrition and good rest, passion for various depleting diets, can lead to the development of tuberculosis even among businessmen and people of high social status.
By 20-30 years it is believed that each person is infected with a stick of Koch, but a strong immune system copes with it. It is only necessary to weaken the body and mycobacterium tuberculosis can become more active and cause pulmonary tuberculosis and extrapulmonary forms.
As for the dry cough, it can be caused by tuberculosis of the lungs, bronchi or trachea, larynx. It begins with a dry, unproductive cough, obtrusive coughing, weakness, while the temperature body is rarely more than 37.3-35.5 more often it rises to low-grade figures and only in the evening.
Tuberculosis can be the cause of dry cough in adults, as well as in children, which is especially dangerous, as tuberculosis today is not the tuberculosis that was 40 years ago. Now a large number of drug-resistant forms of this terrible disease are registered, which require a longer and expensive treatment, and in combination with other chronic diseases in the patient or HIV infection lead to death.
Laryngitis, pharyngitis, tracheitis
are also frequent causes of dry cough. With pharyngitis, the mucous pharynx is involved in the inflammatory process, and with laryngitis, the mucous larynx is involved. Both these diseases are both acute and chronic, cough while it is dry, barking, exhausting, intensifying at night. With frequent inhalation of dusty air, dry, cold, and also in the presence of irritating gases and vapors in the air, tracheitis can develop - both acute and chronic. There is also a painful dry cough.
Diseases of ENT organs
Against the backdrop of various diseases of the nasopharynx, such as sinusitis, sinusitis, or chronic rhinitis, allergic rhinitis, the appearance of night dry cough is due to the syndrome of postnasal swelling. When these diseases acquire a chronic course, not infrequently, the mucus that is separated from the nasal sinuses begins to flow down the back wall of the pharynx, it irritates the cough receptors in the tracheobronchial tree. This cough may seem productive and moist, since nasal mucus is released during cough, but this cough should be considered dry.
Oncological diseases of respiratory organs
Cancer of the bronchi, lungs, trachea, throat cancer, and mediastinal organs (organs located between the sternum and the spine - the heart, bronchi, aorta, etc.). If a long time does not pass a dry cough, he worries both day and night, should see a doctor as soon as possible, to pass the analysis of a blood, a roentgen of lungs, under indications probably MRT of organs of a mediastinum, a bronchoscopy, analyzes on onkomkker. With any chronic cough, it is necessary to find out the exact cause of its appearance, for today the oncological tension is getting stronger, the cancer appears even in young people, and everyone knows that the timely detection of cancer increases the chances of recovery or a significant prolongation of life.
Only on the basis of examination, the doctor can not establish the cause of a protracted cough - this is not possible, so you need to pass the tests and go through several examinations according to the indications - blood test, sputum, spirometry, x-ray, bronchoscopy, bodipletizmography, tussography, MRI, CT.
Causes of dry cough, not associated with inflammatory processes of the respiratory system
Allergic cough
In recent decades, the number of people suffering from various allergic reactions has increased significantly among the Russian population, especially in children. Almost all children today have any allergic reactions, if not food allergy, so allergy to dust, wool, pollen, ticks, etc. Pollinosis - a seasonal allergy to the pollen of flowering plants, which appears in spring and summer, has a very large number of people, it is manifested by sneezing, runny nose, tearing, itching mucous and dry allergic cough.
Bronchial asthma
a very common disease, characterized by a chronic, painful dry cough and attacks of suffocation. This disease can not be considered only a disease of the bronchi, it is a serious pathology, which is associated with a general violation of immunity, nervous system and allergy.
The impact of toxic substances in everyday life
household chemicals containing chlorine, washing powders, etc., the presence of cities in the air, megacities of the abundance of exhaust gases, leads to the emergence of an allergic dry cough. Also pay attention to when you started a dry cough, it may be somehow connected with the purchase of new furniture, new repairs, purchase of household appliances. Modern industry, especially the production of plastic, furniture, building materials, even children's toys, often uses an abundance of toxic chemical substances that can have an irritant effect on mucous nasopharynx, bronchi, causing chronic chemical poisoning. If there are a lot of such products in the room, they are new and exude a smell - this can be the cause of a dry cough.
Glistular invasion
Occasionally, cases of ascariasis are recorded, during which, during the migration of the ascarid larvae along a small circle of circulation, they linger in the lung tissue, causing a superficial dry cough. Getting into the lungs, the trachea and the bronchi, they cause irritation of the cough receptors, the migration phase with ascariasis is 8-14 days (see Fig. ascarids-symptoms and treatment).
Professional dry cough
The reason for its appearance may be related to work in harmful production, where in the air a mass of suspensions of toxic substances that cause dry cough in the workers is formed. Workers of the stone-working and coal-mining industry often develop silicosis of the lungs. Also among occupational diseases that cause dry cough is worth noting the disease of American farmers or fibrosing alveolitis, where dry cough is only a debut of 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 temperature, it happens after eating with diverticula of the esophagus, esophagus-tracheal fistula, reflux-esophagitis.Acceptance of certain medicines
as a rule, ACE inhibitors, which are used to lower blood pressure and treat other cardiovascular diseases. In 20% of patients, these medicines cause a dry cough, if after discontinuation of the drug it disappears, therefore, this cough was a side effect of the drug taken.
Cardiovascular diseases, heart failure may also be the cause of dry cough
The cause of allergies, a provoker of allergic reactions can be established with the help of tests, which will be directed by an allergist. It is worth to take seriously any manifestations of allergy, as it is not just a dry cough, runny nose or a rash, with a severe allergic reactions can occur anaphylactic shock, Quincke's edema, which without timely medical help can be fatal.
zdravotvet.ru
How to treat a long-lasting cough
About 30 percent of the population suffers from different types of cough. This condition not only reduces working capacity, but can completely change a person's way of life, as there is insomnia, headaches and depression. Especially painful is a long-lasting cough. It can appear as a complication after catarrhal or other diseases. If the cough does not pass more than a month, then
it is necessary to be examined by a doctor, as this may be a symptom of asthma, cancer, or heart problems. In this case, it can not be cured, without eliminating its cause.What are the causes of protracted cough?
It is believed that a long non-passing cough torments mostly smokers. It is impossible to get rid of it completely. But people who do not have this bad habit, sometimes suffer from a protracted cough.
1. Most often, it remains after cold or viral diseases. With proper treatment, the cough goes away after a while.
2. One of the most common causes of protracted cough is asthma. This disease is now found in every twentieth person. In this case, the cough is episodic or permanent. Sometimes it is the only symptom of the disease. It is necessary to treat it with asthma, because it can lead to suffocation.
3. Often coughing occurs due to irritation of the throat with discharge from the nose. In this case, it intensifies at night or in the morning.
4. A long cough that does not pass can signal the onset of tuberculosis, lung cancer or pleurisy.
5. Sometimes a prolonged cough occurs as an allergic reaction to various stimuli.
6. With some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, too long a non-coughing is possible. This occurs with rotavirus infection, reflux, dysbiosis or helminthic invasion.
Treatment of a protracted cough
First of all, you need to eliminate its causes and cure the underlying disease. But there are also special medicines to suppress the cough reflex, as well as various mucolytic drugs. Modern medicines often have a complex effect and treat different types of cough. The most effective are "Bromgexin" and "Ambroxol". They are produced not only in the form of tablets, but also in the form of syrup for children.
If a wet cough does not pass for a long time, you need to take medications that dilute sputum and help her evacuation from the lungs, for example, ATSTS. In addition, it is recommended to use folk remedies.
Traditional medicine for cough
The most famous are inhalations from decoction of kidneys of pine, eucalyptus leaves or essential oil of mint. It is also useful to warm up the chest and back with a blue lamp or mashed boiled potatoes. When a cough for a long time does not pass after a cold, it is good to drink currant juice or cabbage with sugar, decoction of lime-colored or apples with a core. Cockberry juice is effective for the rapid escape of phlegm or
viburnum with sugar or honey. It is also recommended to eat baked pears, drink carrot juice with milk or a decoction of wheat bran.A long-lasting cough worsens and leads to a decrease in working capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to examine and treat it and the diseases that cause it.
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