CHESTY COUGH ADVICE: HOW TO HELP A CHESTY COUGH

Have a hacking or chesty cough? Advice, remedies, and the best medicine for chesty coughs - it’s time to lead the charge against your cold or flu…

For over 50 years, we’ve shown coughs and colds who’s boss, with leading cough medicines, mixtures, and lozenges that let you grab life by the horns. 

We’ve combined our expertise to share the causes, symptoms, effective treatments, and medicines for a chesty cough. It’s time to get bullish with your cough…

Note: The doctor involved does not endorse any medical brands or products.

FIND FAST RELIEF: OUR QUICK GUIDE

• What is a chesty cough?
• What are the symptoms of a chesty cough?
• What does a chesty cough sound and feel like?
• What causes a chesty cough?
• How long does a chesty cough last?
• How to relieve a chesty cough
• How to treat a chesty cough
• The best medicine for a chesty cough
• Why chesty cough medicines and not cough suppressants?

A cough is a natural reflex action to clear your airways of irritants. 

A chesty or ‘productive cough’ is specifically caused by congestion in your lungs. Your body tries to clear your airways by producing phlegm or mucus to help clear the infection, which you then cough up.

Chesty cough symptoms include a heavy, ‘wet’ cough that’s raspy and can temporarily unblock your throat, producing mucus or phlegm. Another key symptom is that your chest may feel heavier than usual. 

It’s not uncommon for a chesty cough to be accompanied by wheezing, shortness of breath, fever, muscle and chest discomfort.

If you begin coughing up blood, have a temperature, chest pain or wheezing, please see your GP or pharmacist.

As a chesty cough is caused by congestion, your chest may feel heavy or tight. You will also likely cough up mucus or phlegm, and because of this, it resembles a heavy, hacking cough. Unpleasant - we know.

A heavy, chesty cough may also cause pain, discomfort, and soreness in the throat and upper respiratory system as a result of irritation and inflammation of the throat and voice box tissues. It’s not uncommon to experience a weaker voice or difficulty speaking, or feeling like you’ve lost your voice.

Chesty cough medicines are effective to help you on your path to recovery; you can double up with medicated lozenges to help soothe and soften a sore throat caused by your cough.

Chesty coughs are often triggered by a virus, meaning that antibiotics won’t be an effective treatment (antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, not viral infections). They also often follow a sore throat, a cold or the flu.

Chesty coughs are often a result of Acute bronchitis, a type of short-term bronchitis which causes inflammation of the bronchi of the lungs. 

In these cases, the body responds with immune cells to fight the infection and increased mucus production to trap dead cells and viruses. A chesty cough is the body’s response to expel mucus from the lungs to prevent a blockage caused by inflammation and narrowed airways.

A chesty cough can be caused by lifestyle habits such as smoking. A smoker’s cough is a type of wet or productive cough caused by excessive mucus production as a response to smoking damage of the cilia (or small hairs) in your airways.

Other chesty cough causes include more serious conditions like asthma, heart failure, chronic bronchitis or a respiratory infection. You can be more at risk of these if you smoke or have low immunity.

Like most other coughs, a chesty cough will usually clear up on its own within a couple of weeks. If you’ve had a cold, it’s usually the last symptom to go away. If your cough persists for longer than this or gets worse, please speak to a medical professional.

While coughs will begin to get better on their own, there are a number of remedies and medicines that can help soothe symptoms and buck your chesty cough…