Cough is actually the guardian of the respiratory tract. It is a warning mechanism in cases such as foreign matter or secretion entering the respiratory tract. But, when it lasts for a long time, it becomes very uncomfortable; It makes breathing difficult, causes chest pain, and sometimes it is so severe that it does not let you sleep at night.
A person's cough starts when he takes a deep breath, he feels like he is choking with a coughing fit while laughing, crisis coughing attacks occur in cold and dry environments, silence. Not being able to stop coughing when necessary, or coughing while eating or drinking may be a sign of an important health problem.
Sometimes these coughing attacks are so severe that the patient may experience pain in the chest or abdomen, rib fractures, bleeding in the eye. It can cause urinary incontinence and even lung explosion.
The first thing that should come to mind in such serious situations is the presence of a disease such as asthma, COPD or reflux (GER, gastroesophageal reflux disease) or what we call postnasal discharge. It is the presence of postnasal drip and nasal congestion due to chronic sinusitis from the back of the nose.
Treatment of cough is not possible without finding the cause. Cough suppressants are a temporary solution; if you do not use the medication, complaints will occur again. However, in cases such as short-term upper respiratory tract infection or flu, some herbal teas such as linden, mixtures such as warm water-milk, warm water with black pepper and honey will also be beneficial.
Finding the cause of chronic cough and treating it may sometimes take time. All medications used by the patient need to be reviewed. Some blood pressure medications can cause coughing, some eye drops can increase coughing, and some medications used for asthma can trigger coughing. Respiratory or heart diseases that may cause cough should also be reviewed and eliminated one by one.
There are two methods in its treatment, which we call cause-based treatment or empirical treatment. The combined use of these two methods is more effective, but it may still take up to two months for the complaints to improve. When the cough lasts too long, the cough reflex becomes hypersensitive. As the temperature will develop, it will take longer for the complaints to be relieved.
If the cause is still not found after all these steps, further procedures such as tomography or bronchoscopy may be required, such as looking at the respiratory tract with a light device.
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