Cough, whatever it is, dry or wet, is the body's reaction to foreign bodies or harmful substances, bacteria in the respiratory tract. But sometimes this useful reflex brings excruciating pain in the chest or throat, so the desire to get rid of it is quite normal for any person.
Many-faced cough
Cough is classified according to several principles:
- by nature: dry and productive (wet, with sputum);
- by duration: acute (no more than 3 weeks), protracted (no more than 3 months) and chronic.
In fact, cough is not a separate or independent disease, it is just a symptom of some disease. Therefore, the drugs prescribed by doctors are primarily aimed at combating the causes. The most unpleasant and hard to bear is a dry suffocating cough. What to do to get rid of it, you can find out only after determining the accompanying disease.
Causes of dry cough
Influenza and parainfluenza are two major diseasesaccompanying a dry, choking cough. In the early days, it is accompanied by pain in the chest and throat, and only then it becomes wet, with sputum.
- Suffocating cough at night is a clear sign of inflammatory processes in the larynx (laryngitis) or in the pharynx (pharyngitis). Untimely treatment of these diseases in a "kit" with cool inhaled air, vapors or gases can lead to chronic tracheitis.
- Nocturnal choking cough is often the result of post-nasal drip. It is provoked by a runny nose, when fluid discharged from the nose and sinuses flows down the walls of the pharynx and irritates the cough receptors located there. Although the cough looks productive, it is actually dry.
Causes of dry cough accompanied by severe pain
- Dry choking cough accompanied by sharp chest pain
- Also, these signs can signal more serious he alth problems, such as pleurisy (inflammation of the lining of the lungs) or tumors. Often an additional symptom of these diseases is shortness of breath and fever.
- Dry choking cough accompanied by severe pain in the chest area may indicate the presence of tumors of the mediastinal organs (heart, bronchi, aorta, etc.), as well as heart failure and other diseases of the cardiovascular system.
may be a herald of lobar pneumonia. In this case, the pain is felt from the affected lung.
Dry choking cough and childhood illnesses
Special attention should be paid to children's dry cough. Since it often accompanies a disease such as whooping cough. By its nature, such a cough is convulsive, hysterical, sometimes ending in vomiting. Note that expectorants or mucolytics are not prescribed for whooping cough: drugs are effective here to calm the nervous system and to relieve cough. Dry cough, in addition to high fever, vomiting, rash, may be accompanied by measles and false croup.
