General Cough Help & Advice: Types of Cough, Causes & Treatments

24/05/2022

COUGH HELP: LEAD THE CHARGE WITH COVONIA

Have a cough that you want gone? It’s time to fight back and grab life by the horns…

The truth is, there are lots of different types of cough, each with its own causes and accompanying symptoms. Because of this, it’s important to ID your cough correctly.

Knowing the cause or symptoms of your cough is key to finding the right cough help, remedies, and advice to stop it in its tracks. Whether your cough is chesty, dry, tickly, and/or accompanied with a cold or flu, it’s time to get bullish with your cough.

COUGH HELP & ADVICE: QUICK GUIDE

What is a cough?
What causes a cough?
What cough do I have?
Cough medicines to fight back
Medicines to help chesty coughs
Medicines to help dry coughs
Medicines to help tickly coughs
Methods to relieve a cough
What to avoid if you have a cough
When to see a GP

WHAT IS A COUGH?

A cough is a reflex action to clear your airways of mucus or irritants like dust, microbes or smoke. If your breathing passages become blocked, your nervous system sends an alert to your brain.

Your brain responds by telling the muscles in your chest and abdomen to contract and expel a burst of air (a cough) to attempt to clear it. This is built into your nervous system, just like sneezing or yawning.

WHAT CAUSES A COUGH?

The causes of a cough can vary.

For instance, coughs can be caused by irritants such as dust, smoke, pollen or fumes that come with certain environments (such as in the workplace or outside in drier, warmer months). In these cases, a cough occurs to clear the airways and normally clears up quickly.

Most coughs are caused by respiratory infections, with colds and flu being the primary causes for most cough-related symptoms. Colds and flu can cause dry and tickly coughs as a result of inflammation, as well as wet/productive coughs as a protective reflex attempt to clear your airways of viruses and mucus.

Dry and chesty coughs caused by colds and flu should be treated differently (we’ll get onto this in a bit), but ultimately they should clear up on their own within a few weeks.

Sometimes coughs are a symptom of a more serious illness, like lung inflammation, so it’s important to keep an eye on your symptoms. If they don’t clear up within a couple of weeks, speak to a medical professional, like your GP.

TYPES OF COUGHS AND SYMPTOMS: WHAT COUGH DO I HAVE?

There are several different types of cough, each categorised by the type of symptoms that come with it. The two main types of coughs that are caused by colds and flu are ‘wet’ coughs and ‘dry’ coughs.

Wet coughs (also known as productive coughs) are a type of cough that serves a purpose. If you’re coughing up mucus or phlegm as you cough, you have a wet or productive cough.

Dry coughs, on the other hand, do not produce phlegm or mucus as you cough. They are therefore also known as unproductive coughs.

For the best cough help and advice, it’s important to narrow down your symptoms and treat your cough accordingly.

Chesty coughs – can be productive or unproductive, caused by congestion in your lungs. Find chesty cough advice and chesty cough medicines.
Dry coughs – happens when your airways or upper throat become inflamed or irritated, often causing a sore throat. Find dry cough advice and dry cough medicines.
Tickly coughs – an unproductive cough caused when your airways or upper throat become inflamed or irritated. Find tickly cough advice and tickly cough medicines.

FIGHT BACK: COUGH MEDICINES FOR EFFECTIVE TREATMENT

While coughs caused by colds and flu often clear up on their own after a couple of weeks, there’s no reason to succumb to your symptoms.

Choosing the right cough medicines and treatments can help you get your life back on track and feel more like yourself. But just like coughs themselves, cough remedies are not all made equal, nor do they all treat the same exact symptoms.

We’ve put together a general guide to help you find the best cough help and relief for your symptoms:

CHESTY COUGH RELIEF

If you have a chesty cough or if you’re coughing up phlegm and mucus, a chesty cough medicine will help to clear up your symptoms.

Unlike dry cough medicines, chesty cough medicines are designed to help thin mucus to make it easier to cough up.

But why? Well, a productive cough is your body’s mechanism to fight further infection; cough suppressants can limit your body’s cough reflex, which can make the symptoms accompanying your chesty cough worsen.

Find chesty cough medicines

DRY COUGH RELIEF

For a dry or non-productive cough, a dry cough medicine can help soothe irritation.

As dry coughs are often caused by inflammation of the airways, triggering a reflex cough, dry cough medicines help to suppress the cough mechanism and reduce the urge to cough.

If you’re experiencing a persistent, dry cough or dry coughing fits, a dry cough medicine can help to take control of your life so you can focus more on your day and less on your cough.

Find dry cough medicines

TICKLY COUGH RELIEF

While tickly coughs are typically a type of dry cough, the symptoms you experience can differ from a regular dry cough.

If you have irritation or an itch at the back of your throat that causes you to cough, but won’t clear from coughing, it is likely you’re experiencing a tickly cough.

Tickly cough medicines work to soothe the back of the throat to ease irritation. As a result, they can help to reduce the urge to clear your throat or cough, helping you to fight back against your cold.

As symptoms are often shared with regular dry coughs, it’s not uncommon to find a dual-action dry and tickly cough medicine, or all-in-one cough medicines that target both types of cough.

Our recommendations: Dry and tickly cough medicine, all-in-one cough medicine.

COUGH RELIEF HELP: HOW TO GET RELIEF FROM A COUGH

While there’s no single, one-size-fits-all way to treat a cough, there are a number of treatments you can try to ease symptoms and help you feel fighting fit. Keep reading for more advice on how to stop a cough immediately:

Get plenty of rest – give your body what it needs and rest, preferably in a room with good ventilation to help clear your airways
Practice good hygiene – wash your hands with soap frequently, use tissues then throw them away, and practice social distancing to prevent the spread of germs
Drink plenty of fluids – water and juices can help dilute mucus for easy expulsion. Aim for six-eight glasses a day
Drink hot drinks – these can help soothe a tickly cough or sore throat. We recommend hot water, honey and lemon
Eat frequent light and small meals – this will reduce the risk of vomiting through prolonged coughing
Use steam inhalation – this can effectively loosen mucus and phlegm if you have it, and help relieve a heavy chest

WHAT TO AVOID IF YOU HAVE A COUGH

There are also some things that you should avoid, as they can exacerbate symptoms and delay your recovery. These include:

Smoking or going into excessively dusty areas – these can trigger coughing bouts
Drinking lots of alcohol – this causes dehydration which can worsen symptoms
Working in areas with noxious fumes or polluted air – this can further irritate your airways and trigger coughing fits
Closing your windows – fresh air is good for your immune system and can do wonders to open your airways
Antibiotics – as coughs are usually caused by a virus, antibiotics won’t work

WHEN TO SEE YOUR GP

When you need some extra help to diagnose or treat your cough, make sure you visit your GP if any of the following apply:

There are signs of infection – green, yellow or 'rusty' phlegm
Blood is present in the mucus
You are wheezing
Coughing is associated with chest pain
You have whooping cough or croup
You have recurrent night-time coughing
The cough has lasted for more than three weeks
There is any shortness of breath or severe pain when inhaling
You have any recent, unexplained weight loss which accompanies a cough

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