Beware Of Cough Medicines
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has recommended that over-the-counter cough medicines should not be given to children under the age of 6.
Children aged 6 to 12 should only use them on the advice of a doctor or pharmacist.
As an alternative to an over-the-counter cough medicine, try making your own mixture of honey and lemon, which can help soothe a sore throat and ease your cough.
Too Much Mucus And Health Issues
If you suffer from too much mucus production, you may experience, one or more of the following symptoms:
You suffer from a chronic cough that wont go away You are currently experiencing mucus from a cold and/or flu You wake up with puffy and crusty eyes in the morning Bad breath throughout the day You have a constant stuffy nose Your senses are dulled Your senses are not sharp your mind is foggy and thinking clearly is difficult
These symptoms are often a result of a sluggish digestive tract, respiratory system and lymphatic system, which could be caused by excess mucus production. The digestive tract contains millions of tiny microvilli that absorb nutrients from food. In fact, over 80% of all absorption takes place in the small intestine. When we have excess mucus build-up in the intestine, it causes a glue-like buildup that sticks in the folds of the intestinal walls. This accumulation deforms the intestines and results in over 9-10 pound blockages in the average man or woman. This obstruction results in absorption issues, digestive problems, and an overall sick and poor-functioning body.
Although excess mucus production can come from allergies , household chemicals, pollution, or bacteria and viruses, a major cause of mucus production is from the diet.
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Why Does My Asthma Act Up At Night
Asthma can get worse at night. If you have symptoms at night, it’s called nighttime asthma. This is often a sign of uncontrolled asthma. It probably has to do with natural body rhythms and changes in your body’s hormones. With the right asthma management and treatment, you should be able to sleep through the night.
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How Do Healthcare Providers Diagnose Asthma
Your healthcare provider will review your medical history, including information about your parents and siblings. Your provider will also ask you about your symptoms. Your provider will need to know any history of allergies, eczema and other lung diseases.
Your provider may order spirometry. This test measures airflow through your lungs and is used to diagnose and monitor your progress with treatment. Your healthcare provider may order a chest X-ray, blood test or skin test.
What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Asthma
People with asthma usually have obvious symptoms. These signs and symptoms resemble many respiratory infections:
- Chest tightness, pain or pressure.
With asthma, you may not have all of these symptoms with every flare. You can have different symptoms and signs at different times with chronic asthma. Also, symptoms can change between asthma attacks.
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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 Asthma Treatment Options Are There
You have options to help manage your asthma. Your healthcare provider may prescribe medications to control symptoms. These include:
- Bronchodilators: These medicines relax the muscles around your airways. The relaxed muscles let the airways move air. They also let mucus move more easily through the airways. These medicines relieve your symptoms when they happen and are used for intermittent and chronic asthma.
- Anti-inflammatory medicines: These medicines reduce swelling and mucus production in your airways. They make it easier for air to enter and exit your lungs. Your healthcare provider may prescribe them to take every day to control or prevent your symptoms of chronic asthma.
- Biologic therapies for asthma: These are used for severe asthma when symptoms persist despite proper inhaler therapy.
You can take asthma medicines in several different ways. You may breathe in the medicines using a metered-dose inhaler, nebulizer or another type of asthma inhaler. Your healthcare provider may prescribe oral medications that you swallow.
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What Are The Symptoms Of A Cough And Nausea
Cough, Decreased appetite, Nausea or vomiting and Thick saliva or mucus. WebMD Symptom Checker helps you find the most common medical conditions indicated by the symptoms cough, decreased appetite, nausea or vomiting and thick saliva or mucus including Bronchitis, Asthma , and Food poisoning.
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What Is An Asthma Attack
When you breathe normally, muscles around your airways are relaxed, letting air move easily and quietly. During an asthma attack, three things can happen:
- Bronchospasm: The muscles around the airways constrict . When they tighten, it makes your airways narrow. Air cannot flow freely through constricted airways.
- Inflammation: The lining of your airways becomes swollen. Swollen airways dont let as much air in or out of your lungs.
- Mucus production: During the attack, your body creates more mucus. This thick mucus clogs airways.
When your airways get tighter, you make a sound called wheezing when you breathe, a noise your airways make when you breathe out. You might also hear an asthma attack called an exacerbation or a flare-up. Its the term for when your asthma isnt controlled.
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What Are The Signs Of An Asthma Flare
Asthma flare-ups can vary in strength and length. They can happen without warning, causing sudden coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing.
Flare-ups should be treated right away. So it’s important to know their early warning signs, including:
- restless sleep or coughing that prevents sleep
- mild chest tightness or wheezing
- shortness of breath
If the flare-up is severe, a kid might:
- struggle to breathe or have fast breathing even when sitting still
- be unable to speak more than a few words at a time without pausing
- have retractions while breathing in
Because they can be life-threatening, flare-ups demand attention. Your child might need to take quick-relief medicine , visit the doctor, or even go to the hospital.
Following the instructions in your child’s asthma action plan can help you know what to do when a flare-up happens.
How Do You Know If You Have A Lung Infection
If you have a lung infection, here are the most common symptoms to expect:
- A cough that won’t go away.
- Coughing up blood or mucus.
- Pain or discomfort when breathing in or out.
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How Do I Know If My Asthma Is Not Well
A good way to know if your asthma is not well-controlled is by answering these questions:
- Do you have asthma symptoms more than two times a week?
- Do you take your quick-relief medicine more than two times a week?
- Do you wake up from asthma more than two times a month?
- Do you use oral corticosteroids more than two times a year?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, talk with your doctor.
If your asthma is not well-controlled, your daily activities may be limited. You may miss work or school. You may increase your chances of having complications from a respiratory infection. And you may be at greater risk for going to the emergency room, staying in the hospital, or even dying from asthma.
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:
- Herbal therapy with gingko and dried ivy
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Barbara added: “If you find you have been coughing up more phlegm than usual this could be a sign that your airways are inflamed and this can cause asthma symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath or a tight chest”.
Barbara added that you should take you daily preventer inhaler as prescribed and this should help stop these symptoms because it reduces the inflammation in your airways over time.
“If you’re doing this and still getting a lot of mucus on your chest you should book an appointment with your doctor of asthma nurse”, she added.
Can A Cough Last For Weeks With Long Covid
The doctor may recommend flu shots, and other preventative measures to ensure that you dont get colds and flus in the first place. People with long COVID-19 have reported that their cough can continue for weeks or months and be accompanied with ongoing breathlessness and loss of stamina. We will be writing a new blog post about this soon.
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Symptoms Associated With Asthma Cough
A cough is a very common asthma symptom. In some people, cough is sometimes the only noticeable symptom of the condition.
When figuring out whether your cough is due to asthma or not, it may be helpful to assess any other related symptoms you have.
Other possible asthma symptoms include:
- chest tightness
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
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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.
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.
Coughing Up White Mucus
The color of your mucus alone is not a good diagnostic tool. A doctor may look at a sample of sputum to see if it has white blood cells or bacteria in it.
Studies have shown that sputum infected with bacteria tends to be green, yellow, or another color itâs rarely cream-colored, white, or clear.
If you have white mucus, it means there are white blood cells in it. The cause could be a virus, bacteria, or another pathogen. It could also indicate a condition like pneumonia.
Conditions that may cause white mucus are:
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Managing Symptoms At Home
If you have acute bronchitis:
- get plenty of rest
- drink lots of fluid this helps prevent dehydration and thins the mucus in your lungs, making it easier to cough up
- treat headaches, a high temperature, and aches and pains with paracetamol or ibuprofen although ibuprofen is not recommended if you have asthma
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Bacterial And Viral Infections
Infections such as the flu, acute bronchitis, and pneumonia can cause your airways to make extra mucus, which youll often cough up. It may be green or yellow in color.
The new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 doesnt usually cause mucus in the chest. But complications from the virus can include pneumonia, which does involve chest congestion.
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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
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
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Asthma Symptoms In Kids
The most important asthma symptoms in children are:
- Cough: caused by the need to cough up extra mucus in the lungs or from the irritation of the airways
- Wheezing: the musical noise made by air coming out of narrow lung passages
- Shortness of breath
- Chest tightness or pain
Asthma attacks or flares come and go. When an attack begins, you will notice that your child’s symptoms become worse and may worsen rapidly. During an attack, you will likely notice that:
If the attacks become more severe, breathing can be very difficult, like trying to breathe through a straw. Your child may become less active and appear tired.