Can Asthma Cause You To Cough Up Blood

Top 5 Causes Of Coughing Up Blood

Coughing up blood questionnaire

Coughing up blood is a sign of serious irritation to blood vessels or linings in your lungs or stomach. The damage can be caused by a bad bout of bronchitis, infections, or diseases like tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, and even cancer. Call your doctor if you cough up blood, but go to the ER if you have more serious symptoms like difficulty breathing, dizziness, or theres a lot of blood.

Whats An Asthma Attack

When you breathe normally, muscles around your airways are relaxed, letting air move easily. During an asthma attack, three things can happen:

• Bronchospasm: The muscles around the airways constrict . When they tighten, it makes the airways narrow. Air cannot flow freely through constricted airways.
• Inflammation: The airway linings become swollen. Swollen airways dont let as much air in or out of the lungs.
• Mucus production: During the attack, your body creates more mucus. This thick mucus clogs airways.

At Home Treatments For Coughing Up Blood

Coughing up blood should only be treated at home if there is very little and it does not last for a long time. In most cases, you will want to see a physician for a diagnosis and treatment. Some medicines or remedies that stop coughing may be recommended. A cough suppressant may help the heavy coughing and will reduce the amount of blood that is coughed up. However, in some cases, these suppressants may lead to a blocked airway. If you believe you are at risk for this, consult your physician. If you decide to start treatment at home, then you will want to keep a detailed diary of how long you cough up blood, how often it happens, and how much blood is in it.

It is essential to call your physician if you experience any symptoms that seem extreme or if symptoms last too long. There is likely an underlying issue that your physician will need to diagnose and treat. Be ready to answer a series of questions from your physician, such as any other symptoms that may be occurring, how long has this been happening, does it get worse at night, how much blood you are coughing up, etc. This is why it is so important to keep a journal log of what is happening.

Don’t Miss: Can Someone With Asthma Run A Marathon

Video: Phlegm And Asthma

Phlegm and asthma

0:07 Gross as it looksphlegm and mucus protect your body from infection.

0:11 A little bit of phlegm is totally normal but if your phlegm

0:18 changes in colour thickness or amount it could be a sign that you’re ill and your

0:20 asthma may be affected

0:23 if you find you’ve been coughing up more phlegm than

0:28 usual this could be a sign that your airways are inflamed this can cause

0:34 asthma symptoms like coughing wheezing shortness of breath or a tight chest

0:38 You should take your daily preventer inhaler as prescribed and it should help stop

0:42 these symptoms because it reduces the inflammation in your airways over time

0:47 if you’re doing this and still getting a lot of mucus on your chest you should

0:51 book an appointment with your doctor or ask the nurse

1:00 if you have yellow or green phlegm this might be a sign of an infection like a cold flu or a chest

1:04 infection these can often make asthma symptoms worse so it’s really important

1:09 to keep taking your preventer inhaler every day

1:15 if your phlegm is streaked with blood this is usually down to the pressure put on the blood vessels if

1:19 you’re coughing a lot the best thing you can do in this case is to see your

1:24 doctor to make sure it’s nothing to worry about if you have brown or black

1:28 tinged phlegm it usually occurs in smokers or if you have COPD chronic

1:34 obstructive lung disease as well as asthma when you stop smoking even just

What Is An Asthma Action Plan

Your healthcare provider will work with you to develop an asthma action plan. This plan tells you how and when to use your medicines. It also tells you what to do if your asthma gets worse and when to seek emergency care. Understand the plan and ask your healthcare provider about anything you dont understand.

Recommended Reading: Does Smoking Weed Affect Your Asthma

It’s Not Too Late To Get Your Flu Vaccine And Remember It’s Free For People With Asthma

Donate today and help do 3 amazing things for people with asthma

Asthma UKs mission is to stop asthma attacks and cure asthma. We do this by funding world leading research, campaigning for improved care and supporting people to reduce their risk of a potentially life-threatening asthma attack. Will you help us do all this and more?

How To Treat Asthma Cough

Treating an asthma cough involves taking controller medications. Corticosteroids for inhaling will help reduce the inflammation in the lungs, which is said to be the biggest cause of an asthma cough. Inhaled corticosteroids are usually a long-term solution for cough variant asthma. For getting relief in the short term, oral corticosteroids are usually prescribed. Quick-relief inhalers are recommended to keep handy to take care of coughing and wheezing incidences. These quick-relief inhalers, though, are only meant for using once or twice in a week. You may also use them before exercising or if you are suffering from a disease and are generally feeling unwell, triggering a bout of coughing.

Oral medications for relieving asthma cough include leukotriene modifiers such as montelukast, brand name Singulair. These drugs work by treating the symptoms of asthma which are associated with allergic rhinitis.

There are also some alternative treatments that you can opt for treating an asthma cough. However, you should not stop taking your prescribed medications for other complementary treatments such as homeopathy. Your doctor will be the best person to advise you on whether the following options can provide relief in cough variant asthma:

• Pranayama
• Herbal therapy with gingko and dried ivy

Recommended Reading: Does Weight Gain Make Asthma Worse

When To See A Specialist About Your Asthma

Asthma is not always easy to diagnose, Fineman says, but you should see your doctor if youre having repeated episodes of wheezing and coughing or shortness of breath. If youre diagnosed with the condition, work with your doctor to develop an asthma management and;action plan.

Although your primary care doctor may be able to diagnose and;treat your asthma, if your symptoms dont respond to a first-line therapy of inhaled corticosteroids and short-acting bronchodilators, Asciuto recommends that you see a lung specialist or allergy and asthma specialist.

Hemoptysis Diagnosis And Tests

If youâre coughing up blood, your doctor will do one or more of these:

• Medical history and physical exam . This helps them gather clues to identify the cause.
• Chest X-ray. This can show whether thereâs a mass in your chest or areas of fluid or congestion in your lungs.
• CT scan . With detailed images of the inside of your chest, this test may reveal some causes for coughing up blood.
• Bronchoscopy . Your doctor runs a flexible tube with a camera on its end, called a bronchoscope, through your nose or mouth and into your windpipe and airways.
• Complete blood count . This test checks the number of white and red blood cells in your blood, along with platelets .
• Urinalysis . Some causes of hemoptysis also show up on this simple urine test.
• Blood chemistry profile. This test measures electrolytes and how well your kidneys are working.
• Coagulation tests. Changes to your bloodâs ability to clot, or coagulate, can lead to bleeding and coughing up blood.
• Arterial blood gas. This test measures the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood. Oxygen levels can be low in people coughing up blood.
• Pulse oximetry. A probe tests the level of oxygen in your blood.

Recommended Reading: Asthma Without Inhaler How To Help

Signs You Actually Have Severe Asthma

Breathing is just one of those things you take for granted until it feels like every inhale or exhale is a struggle. Unfortunately, people with severe asthma have to deal with breathing issues way more often than anyone should, and it can be completely terrifying.

Asthma is a respiratory condition that affects the airways that extend from your nose and mouth to your lungs, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute . When youre exposed to triggers like animal fur, pollen, mold, exercise, and respiratory infections, these airways can narrow, restricting your airflow. This can then make the muscles surrounding your airways constrict, making it even harder to breathe, and cause your airways to produce more mucus than normal, further compounding the problem. All together, this can lead to asthma symptoms like shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing , and chest tightness or pain, according to the NHLBI.

Like most health conditions, asthma severity runs along a spectrum, Emily Pennington, M.D., a pulmonologist at the Cleveland Clinic, tells SELF. Some people have cases where they experience minor symptoms here and there . Others can have asthma that is basically an ever-present problem and might result in scary asthma attacks, which is when symptoms ramp up in severity and can even become life-threatening.

Related:

Charcoal Or Gray Phlegm

We tend to see charcoal or sooty looking phlegm in people who work in coal mines and factories or are really heavy smokers.

If you work in a factory where theres a ton of smoke and dont wear a mask, youre inhaling all that in and its causing an inflammatory reaction in your airways that produces phlegm. The irritants are mixed in with the phlegm and when you cough, it comes out.

Recommended Reading: Triggers For Asthma Attack

What Does Coughing Up Blood With Asthma Mean

• References

Coughing up blood with asthma underlines that some medical problem is happening in the lungs / respiratory system. Coughing up blood is not due to the presence of an asthma condition because asthma alone does not cause one to have mucus or bloody sputum. The cough with blood originates from the upper respiratory tract, such as from sinuses or nasopharynx, though it is not always easy to detect the source of blood.

Nevertheless, the condition should be taken seriously and diagnosed to determine what the person is suffering from. In medical knowledge, there are several causes for which coughing up blood can happen such as gingivitis, bleeding gums, blood clot in the lung, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, throat irritation due to violent coughing, nosebleed, laryngitis, lung cancer, Goodpastureâs syndrome, pneumonia, necrotic pneumonia, lung injury, lung trauma, parasitic lung infection, anaerobic pneumonia, Serratia marcescens lung infection, pulmonary aspiration, pulmonary edema, tuberculosis, Wegenerâs granulomatosis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

To determine the correct reason, diagnostic techniques like lung bioscopy, bronchoscopy, laryngoscopy, spirometry, mediastinoscopy, tonsillectomy and upper airway biopsy are available.

Serious Symptoms That Might Indicate A Life

In some cases, coughing up blood can occur with other symptoms that might indicate a serious or life-threatening condition that needs evaluation in an emergency setting. Seek immediate medical care if you, or someone you are with, have any of these life-threatening symptoms:

• Bloody stools or urine

• Shortness of breath or

Recommended Reading: How To Get Rid Of Asthma Without Inhaler

Tips To Sleep Better With Severe Asthma At Night

Nocturnal asthma is associated with poor sleep quality. This condition of sleeplessness and its effects are worse for children. The average total sleep quality score of children affected by asthma is 51, which is above the clinical cut off of 41, but it indicates the pervasive sleep disturbances among this population.

Here are a few tips that can help you sleep better with asthma at night:

Conditions That Mimic Asthma

There are a number of conditions that can cause shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness. While most are related to the lungs and respiratory system, others are associated with other organ systems, such as the heart and respiratory tract.

When investigating potential asthma, your doctor will consider all possible causes of your breathing difficulty in a process called differential diagnosis.

You May Like: Weed Asthma

Is It Asthma Or Copd

If you have a chronic cough or wheeze and are often short of breath, it could be asthma. Or it could be COPD. Or both. Here’s how to find out what’s causing your symptoms.

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, share many symptoms and even certain treatments, but understanding the differences between the two conditions is the key to taking control of the health of your lungs.

COPD is an umbrella term for a group of lung diseases including chronic bronchitis and emphysema diseases that block airflow as you exhale and make it progressively harder to breathe.

Asthma is also chronic, marked by an inflammation and narrowing of the airways. Both conditions could cause trouble breathing. So what’s the answer?

What Causes Asthma Cough: Its Symptoms Diagnosis & Treatment

Having a cough can be a big nuisance. Not only are you hacking away the entire day, but it often leaves you feeling tired and out of breath. Constantly coughing in the office can also become a cause of embarrassment when it refuses to let up. In fact, statistics show that a cough is one of the most common reasons or complaints for which people seek medical attention. Asthma cough, also known as cough variant asthma, is a form of asthma that only presents with a cough. Due to the fact that most people associate asthma with breathing trouble, asthma cough tends to go undiagnosed many a times.

Also Check: Can Cold Weather Affect Asthma

Tests That May Be Needed

Your GP may decide to refer you to a specialist at your local hospital for a chest X-ray or a more detailed scan, such as a computerised tomography scan.

You may be asked for a sample of your sputum so it can be checked for infection. Other tests, such as blood tests, may also be needed.

In some cases, further tests may be required to find out where the blood is coming from. For example, you may be referred to a specialist who may decide to arrange a test called a bronchoscopy .

This page can give you a better idea of what the cause may be, but don’t use it to diagnose yourself. Always leave that to a doctor.

What Causes A Cough

A cough can have many causes. Sometimes there may be more than 1 cause for people with cancer. Causes can include:

Certain types of cancer.

• Cancers that affect the upper respiratory tract

• Any cancer that has spread to the lungs or chest

Cancer treatment.

• Some types of chemotherapy, including bleomycin and methotrexate

• Some types of oral targeted therapy drugs, including osimertinib and everolimus

• Immunotherapy drugs, including pembrolizumab , that can cause inflammation of the lungs

• Radiation therapy to the chest

• Hormonal therapies, such as fulvestrant and letrozole

Other medication.

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , used to reduce pain and inflammation

• Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, used to treat high blood pressure and heart disease

• Midazolam , used to relax patients before medical procedures

Cancer-related side effects.

• Infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, which are more likely in people with cancer

• Pleural effusion, a buildup of extra fluid in the space between the lungs and the chest wall

• Pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in the lungs

• Superior vena cava syndrome, a tumor blocking a major vein in the neck and chest

Other health conditions.

• Bronchitis, pneumonia, and COVID-19

Don’t Miss: Asthma And Throat Clearing

What Is The Difference Between Cough

The main difference, as previously stated, is that cough-variant asthma is characterised by a dry cough that does not bring up mucus, and that is not accompanied by wheezing or other symptoms.

Another difference between the two is that cough-variant asthma may be harder to diagnose than regular asthma. This is because of the absence of other symptoms, and because there are many conditions that can cause a dry cough.

If you are suffering from a persistent dry cough that has lasted for more than 3 weeks, you should seek medical advice.

Causes of a persistent cough other than asthma include:

• Chronic bronchitis

Recommended Reading: First Aid For Asthma Attack Without Inhaler

How To Treat The Symptoms

Depending on the cause, coughing up blood can be treated in several ways. If the culprit is simple throat irritation due to excessive coughing, over-the-counter throat lozenges and cough suppressants may be enough.

The goals for treatment is to first stop the bleeding, especially large amounts, and then treat the underlying cause. If an infection is the cause, your doctor may prescribe medication.

In cases of severe bleeding, youll need to go to the hospital. A doctor may recommend a procedure known as endovascular embolization that stops bleeding. Other procedures or surgeries may be necessary depending on the cause.

Don’t Miss: Asthma Essential Oils Avoid

What Are The Symptoms Of An Asthma Cough

Cough variant asthma or an asthma cough is usually known to have no other symptom apart from a chronic dry and nonproductive cough. A nonproductive cough means that it does not produce any mucus. Lasting for more than 8 to 10 weeks in adults and more than 5 weeks in children, an asthma cough is not considered to be a serious condition on its own. However, a chronic cough is irritating and disrupts your daily life.

Sometimes, to understand whether or not your cough is happening due to asthma, doctors may assess if you have any of these related symptoms:

• Trouble exercising
• Wheezing and chest tightness

Keep in mind that it is necessary to treat an asthma cough properly and in time because if it is left untreated and ignored, then it may progress into regular asthma. If you notice the following symptoms, your asthma cough might well be developing into classic asthma:

• Tightness feeling in the chest
• Difficulty in breathing followed by shortness of breath
• Asthma attacks when you feel that the air is not able to reach your lungs due to the narrowing of the airways