Only a few who suffer from coughing go to the doctor, the rest go to the theater.
Imagine the picture: you go to bed, after a busy day, in anticipation of rest, and after some time you can’t fall asleep, because a cough that repeats after a while strangles you. He is exhausted, angry and does not allow to fall asleep.
Why does such a cough occur, the causes and methods of struggle, read below.
About cough
At its core, a cough is an exhalation of air through the mouth that is caused by contraction of the respiratory muscles due to irritation of the receptors. This is a reflex that we cannot control and reassure with the “power of thought”. And, in essence, coughing is a protective reflex, the main role of which is to clear the airways of foreign bodies, obstacles and irritating agents.
Causes of night cough
If you are concerned about a night cough, this is not necessarily a manifestation of SARS or a respiratory tract disease. In addition, the reasons may also be:
- Allergic manifestations.
- Cold and dry indoor air.
- Body position (often, when lying down, the mucus from the nasopharynx has no outflow and makes air passage difficult, causing a cough).
- Bronchial asthma (if there are no symptoms of a cold, but there is a whistle on the exhale and heaviness in the chest).
- Heart failure (dry cough, in which there is also shortness of breath and palpitations).
- Gastroesophageal reflux (throwing the contents of the stomach back into the esophagus and respiratory tract, due to the acidity of the gastric juice, is an irritant and causes a cough).
- Malignant formations of the lungs, mediastinum.
- Tuberculosis.
- Cough of neurogenic origin (the cause is a nervous system disease).
Diagnosis and treatment of night cough
Whatever origin your night cough would have, one symptom cannot be treated. The issue must be approached comprehensively.
First of all, you need to find out the cause of a strong cough at night. And for this, sometimes, you need to undergo a comprehensive examination: a blood test, an x-ray of the chest cavity, FGDS, bronchography, specialist consultations and so on.
When you find out the cause, you need to move on to the next stage: treatment of the cause and, in fact, the night cough itself. Since coughing is a defense mechanism, we are faced with the task of alleviating it, and not just removing and stopping it.
The method of treatment depends on the type of cough, that is, depending on the type and nature of the cough, use: antitussive drugs – they inhibit the reflex; expectorants – help to remove mucus from the respiratory tract; mucolytics – dilute sputum and remove it from the respiratory tract; flour regulators – tidy up sputum viscosity.
Treatment of night cough with folk remedies and not only
Of course, if you turned to a specialist for help, he prescribed you treatment, this does not mean at all that there are “some harmful pills that plant the liver”.
In order to calm the cough, both adults and children use warm drinks – milk with honey, decoctions of herbs, milk with mineral water.
If your room has dry air, a humidifier will help you.
If you are allergic to something, you need to drink an antiallergic drug on time.
Steam inhalations also help a lot .
The pharmacological industry also came up with cough lozenges that are quite convenient to use, but it is important not to fall asleep with the lozenges in the mouth and not choke.
From the folk: radish juice interfere with honey. Or take honey, glycerin and lemon juice. Take such an antitussive agent 6 r / day.
From medicinal herbs: coltsfoot, ledum, chamomile .
With serious processes in the organs of the respiratory system, an infusion of elderberry inflorescences is used.