Health Network News

If you have caught a common cold or flu, and bouts of cough are causing you pain and soreness of throat or triggering off other health complications, you need to visit a doctor immediately.

Coughs occur because the defences of the body propel them in order to clear the passage of air in the throat which provides air to the lungs. They not only happen due to physical problems and ailments but also can be caused due to psychological problems. The former is caused when the cough results from external irritants like environmental pollutants, cigarette smoke, dust etc or because of a medical disorder. The latter is a habit of coughing or sneezing in a person without any concrete physical reason, and it is known as ‘habitual coughing’ or Streruphilia in medical parlance.

Cough can often be a chronic problem with identifiable features and can also be serious based on how intense and painful the symptoms are. Acute coughs which last less than 3 weeks can be an offshoot of either infectious or non-infectious ailments. Examples of ailments of one time nature which cause painful coughs are sinus infections and pneumonia and examples of complications triggering chronic coughs are asthma and bronchitis.

Consulting a medical practitioner is important to get to the root cause of the complication and taking appropriate treatment for complete recovery. Depending on the identified root cause, doctors can prescribe various kinds of medicines like antibiotics, antihistamines, or other cough suppressants. In several chronic cases where the cough is persistent, the treatment or therapy can even take months to be able to cure the problem.

Like with all physical disorders, it is always better to take precautionary measures to avoid cough rather than having to deal with it later by undergoing prolonged treatment. Abstaining from smoking, exercising daily and eating a balanced diet that develops immune system and improves overall health can help keep cough at bay.