How to distinguish dry cough from wet

Coughing is a natural reaction of the body to some irritating factors. Cough helps to get rid of sputum, the smallest particles of dust and other foreign objects that have got into the respiratory tract. However, it is very important to distinguish between dry and wet cough, since they may have a different nature, respectively, and the treatment is fundamentally different. First, try to deal with the symptoms and causes of dry and wet cough.

Why dry cough occurs

Unlike wet cough, dry cough can have many causes.

1. The most common cause of dry cough is inflammation in the larynx and trachea. Often, bronchitis begins with a dry surface cough. Usually dry cough appears at the very beginning of respiratory diseases, and then becomes wet.
2. A dry, barking cough indicates laryngitis.At the same time, the voice changes - it becomes hoarse, in young children this is noticeable during crying. Laryngitis is dangerous for babies, as it can narrow the breathing clearance and lead to suffocation.
3. A dry cough may occur due to an allergic reaction. Most often, an allergic cough appears after contact with cigarette smoke, animal hair, pollen and dust. Allergen gets on the mucous larynx and causes swelling and itching. Because of this, there is a dry cough. Often it is accompanied by lacrimation, sneezing and discharge of mucus from the nose.
4. Another reason for dry cough is worm infestation. Some types of parasites live not only in the intestines, but circulate through the blood throughout the body. Roundworms grow well in the lungs, and their metabolic products (toxins) cause irritation and cough.
5. Also, a dry cough can be caused by carditis or other malfunctions in the cardiovascular system.
6. Another common cause of dry cough is the discharge of mucus from the nose. With a large amount of discharge, they flow down the back of the larynx, irritating it and causing a cough reflex. Such a cough often occurs at night, when mucus actively drains when the body is horizontal.
7. Dry cough occurs during an asthma attack.
8. Often a dry cough appears when we inhale dust, the smell of cigarettes and other polluted air - this is how the body tries to get rid of the irritant.
9. Exhausting dry cough occurs with whooping cough and paracocchus.

A dry cough can torment a person for a very long time. If you can not get rid of dry cough or can not find out the reason for its occurrence - contact your pulmonologist.

Moist cough

A wet cough is more productive, it says that you are on the road to recovery. Wet cough has a very important function - it removes sputum from the body. Such a cough can occur with bronchitis. Together with sputum from the lungs, a huge number of germs and bacteria. If the sputum is brown or orange, then the patient has pneumonia. If the phlegm has a purulent nature, then an abscess of the lung is likely to occur. If you find blood streaks in sputum, you should immediately consult a doctor. In any case, a wet cough and sputum discharge indicates an inflammatory process in the body. Self-treatment in such a situation is unacceptable.

How to distinguish dry cough from wet

Here are some signs by which you can distinguish a dry cough from a wet one.

1. During dry cough, itching and irritation in the throat occur, it is often difficult to clear the throat, paroxysmal cough.
2. After a wet cough, the person feels relieved, especially after sputum discharge. With a dry cough, the patient never spits.
3. A dry cough resembles a dog barking.
4. Dry cough often occurs at night, and wet does not depend on the time of day.
5. An attack of dry cough is quite long, and when a wet cough a person coughs much faster.
6. Sometimes, together with a dry cough, vomiting can occur, since both irritating reflexes are located closely.
7. With a wet cough, there are wheezing that is very easy to hear when listening. Dyspnea may also occur if you have a wet cough.
8. Often a wet cough is accompanied by fever, as the body is an inflammatory process.
9. With a dry cough, antihistamines can help relieve symptoms. Allergy medications relieve swelling and itching in the throat, causing dry coughing to stop for a while. But with a wet cough, these drugs are useless.

A wet cough is called productive because it is easier to tolerate and indicates the completion of the disease. That is, a dry cough is the beginning of the disease, with proper treatment, a dry cough turns into a wet one. Thereafter, attacks of wet cough become less and less, as the sputum is gradually excreted. But what to do?

How to treat dry and wet cough

When a dry cough occurs, it is very important to understand its nature. If a cough occurs after contact with dust, wool and pollen of plants, you should try to identify the allergen and avoid it, and in case of forced contact to take antihistamines. Ketotifen will help to get rid of prolonged allergic cough. But in order to achieve a real result, it must be drunk off course. To test for worms, you need to donate blood and feces for the analysis of parasites. That is, you need to treat not the symptom itself in the form of a cough, but the cause of the disease. You will not be able to suppress a dry cough, if its cause is a violation of the heart muscle - you need to treat the pathology itself.

If a dry cough occurs due to a respiratory disease, it can be suppressed with antitussive drugs - Sinekod, Libeksin, Herbion for dry cough, Stoptussin.Among the folk remedies for dry cough, plantain decoction is very effective.

When wet cough need to take drugs to liquefy and discharge of sputum. These are ACC, Herbion for wet cough, Lasolvan, Bromhexin. For children, Prospan syrup and drops can be used as they are based on herbal ingredients. These medicines help to remove sputum from the lungs as quickly as possible Among the popular recipes for the treatment of wet cough, you can use a decoction of licorice and Althea. It is very effective to warm the chest with animal fat, heated with salt or sand. For children, you can make a cough honey cake and put it on your chest all night.

When treating a cough, it is very important to know its nature, because in no case can one treat a wet cough with antitussive drugs. In this case, they suppress the cough reflex, sputum stagnates in the lungs, which is very dangerous and can lead to a secondary inflammatory process.

Coughing can be both helpful and annoying. On the one hand, it removes airways from foreign bodies and helps to get rid of sputum.On the other hand, coughing can be not just debilitating, but incredibly painful (for example, with whooping cough). Whatever the cough is - a reaction to a failure in the body. Take care of your health as early as possible, and then only memories will remain for coughing.

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