Allergy has a different manifestation depending on how the allergen entered the body, as well as on the state of immunity, the time of exposure to the substance.
The appearance of rhinitis, cough, irritation on the skin can be caused by the flowering of herbs or the appearance of other impurities in the air, a reaction to food appears after ingestion of an allergen, household allergies do not recede all year round.
Cough is a popular symptom of allergies, or rather, a symptom of it. If left untreated, changes in the airways can occur, which may require medication for the rest of your life.
Patients should be aware of all the possibilities to reduce symptoms in order to maintain health and, if necessary, suppress cough.
Causes of occurrence
Allergies are caused by problems with the immune system, when common substances are perceived by the body as bacteria or viruses. Moreover, such a reaction occurs gradually, if the substance enters the body for a long time and accumulates there.
Immunity produces histamine, which fights the “invader”, attracting more and more forces to fight the allergen. Both men and women are sick, and now more and more allergies occur in children.
Usually, the body coughs to react to substances other people encounter every day without consequences:
- pollen of plants;
- cigarette smoke;
- household chemicals;
- fragrances;
- dust;
- animal hair;
- medicines;
- mold;
- dust mites;
- chemistry;
- traffic fumes;
- food.
All of them can cause allergies in a person of any age, and the list is expanding every year. Doctors say that this is facilitated by a bad environmental situation, heavy air, impurities in food, industrial substances.
Some allergens affect multiple body systems. If there are a lot of them, a person begins to cough and sneeze, and internal organs begin to change.
You can understand what causes this reaction with the help of medical tests, but sometimes you can also see the cause yourself.
Signs
The ingress of an irritant into the body through the upper respiratory tract provokes coughing and sneezing, the appearance of tears from the eyes.
Moreover, at first you might think that a cold is starting, but the difference in manifestations is understood later. So it is easy to distinguish an allergy from a disease, but to understand the cause is much more difficult:
- The temperature does not rise because there is no inflammation. This is the main difference between disease and allergy.
- The cough begins as if from nothing and quickly passes, but if you remember all the circumstances, the cause will be found.
- The phlegm with such a cough is transparent, without pus. A wet cough is a sign that the allergen is leaving the body. If the cough is dry, then you need to see a doctor for advice.
- Before coughing, a person may feel a sore throat and itching.
- Most often, attacks torment at night, and during the day all symptoms disappear. At night, the body actively produces histamines, and therefore reacts violently to the allergen.
- Another sign is irritation of the skin and blood vessels. When a person coughs, he turns red, his throat cracks like claws, it is hard to breathe. Some are afraid of suffocation, which makes the cough worse.
- Antitussive drugs do not save from such a manifestation, but antihistamines will reduce or remove seizures.
Allergic reactions can occur and proceed in different ways throughout the year. The main thing is to understand that an attack can happen and take action in time. It is better to always carry pills with you, which will save you from suffocation at the right time.
Diagnostics
First you need to understand what causes coughing fits. When a substance is identified, a treatment plan is written, where the first condition is to remove the allergen from a person’s life or reduce its amount.
The examination should be carried out in a comprehensive clinic under the supervision of an allergist.
For testing, small doses of possible allergens are used and applied to the skin. If a reaction occurs, this indicates an allergy.
You can also take a blood test to check for enzymes in the allergen. This is a safe diagnosis that doesn’t take long.
It is also necessary to check lung function in order to understand the degree of damage and determine the tactics of prevention and treatment. Since sometimes allergies cause pathologies in the organs, in this way you can notice a progressive disease.
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish an allergy from a cold, if symptoms of intoxication appear, and when you cough, colored sputum comes out.
How to treat adults
Sometimes a person is able to defeat the disease himself, but more often it is necessary to resort to drugs. They remove the negative effects of irritants, reduce the effectiveness of histamines, help breathe calmly, and control the work of the immune system.
Coughing attacks in an acute form can provoke asthma attacks, in which case you need to call an ambulance, because the person will suffocate. Doctors will give you an injection of glucocorticosteroids. There are options for these medicines for home use as well.
Treatment with drugs
Medicines are used to stop the histamine receptors from working, as well as to stop the body’s violent reaction to immunity.
You need to contact an allergist who will monitor the course of the disease. For coughing can be prescribed:
- antihistamines;
- mucolytics;
- bronchodilators.
Sometimes you may need immunomodulators, enzymes, sorbents.
Folk remedies
Some folk recipes tell you how to cope with a cough, but you need to handle them carefully, because some herbs can aggravate allergies.
Oats, garlic, onions, and sage are commonly recommended. They have a beneficial effect on the immune system, help remove toxins from the body, but will not cure allergies. So you can hardly do without going to the doctor.
Prevention
If an allergic cough appears, try to remove the irritating substance or reduce the amount around you as much as possible.
No one guarantees complete healing, so you have to live in constant prophylaxis all the time to reduce the burden on the immune system.
There are some tips for experienced allergy sufferers:
- When reacting to household stimuli, it is necessary to ventilate the premises more often and go out into the street, wipe the surfaces with a damp cloth.
- If this is a reaction to a hazardous chemical, then after and before contact with it, you can rinse your nose and throat with a salt solution. This will relieve the attack and remove the allergen.
- In the house, it is necessary to reduce the number of carpets, excess clothing, soft toys. Pets should be removed from the premises at night.
- The diet will reduce the list of allergens in order to avoid expanding the list of provoking factors.
- Working on strengthening the immune system will reduce its response to allergens.
It is possible to remove the allergy to the end only if it was noticed immediately upon occurrence, or if the cause was eliminated.
But the immune system will also react sharply to other stimuli, so with new attacks, you will still have to consult a doctor to diagnose and relieve symptoms.