All you need to know about cough!Line

It is never a fun situation to be coughing constantly. From causing you irritation & giving you sleepless nights, cough can prove to be terribly disruptive for your everyday life. But do you know the reason behind what causes you to cough? And what exactly is cough and its related symptoms?

Cough & cold are among the most common health ailments that people suffer from.

Reason:Line

Undigested food forms ama (improcessed metabolites) that leads to disorder of Kapha & Vata dosha in our body. While allopathic medicines are known to suppress cough, it has been scientifically established that Ayurvedic medicines provide you with long-term relief that too with no adverse effects.

Classification of cough:Line

Do coughs come in a variety? Yes they do and can be caused due to reasons as varied as viral infections like cold or flu, or due to inflammation in wind pipe and lungs or allergies that irritate the respiratory system. Just like humans, cough also comes in all forms.

- Acute Cough: Cough that lasts anywhere between 2-3 weeks. It is usually treated at home with OTC medicines, self or natural homemade treatments.

- Subacute Cough: A cough that persists anywhere between 3 and 8 weeks. It warrants a medical advice.

- Chronic Cough: Cough that lasts more than 7-8 weeks. In case of chronic cough, doctor’s intervention and proper medical treatment must be opted at the earliest.

- Productive Cough: Also known as wet cough, it produces mucus or sputum. It must not be supressed as it aids in clearing mucus from the lungs.

- Non-productive Cough: : It is dry cough that does not produce sputum. It usually develops towards the end of the cold and can be triggered by factors like atmospheric pollutants and exposure to dust & smoke among others.

Ayurveda & CoughLine

Cough in Ayurveda is known as a Vata Kapha disorder. Kasa or cough is manifested when the vitiated Vata pays visit to the respiratory system of our body causing the imbalance of doshas thus resulting in you coughing. The treatment, therefore, must be aimed at correcting the path of Vata along with balancing the other doshas.

While available marketed remedies may provide temporary relief by suppressing cough, Avuyrvedic treatments provide fast and longer relief.

Ayurvedic medicines are formulated using natural ingredients that are traditionally known to soothe the ailments. Ayurvedic medicines for cough & cold are usually a combination of herbs and spices like clove, ginger, tulsi, turmeric, honey, cinnamon etc., that are useful for use for people of all ages. Besides, a medicine or a remedy that is made from ingredients commonly found in almost every kitchen can be considered safe. To treat the problem of cough from the root, opting for Ayurvedic treatments and remedies can be a good alternative.

Understanding your cough type is important to seek proper treatment. Some of the symptoms of cough like itchy throat, chest pain and congestion can be managed with cough formula that is herbal and natural. While most of the cough syrups available in the market contain codeine and alcohol that causes drowsiness and may be addictive, it is important to choose a brand that can provide fast relief and is safe to consume.

If your kasa is giving you sleepless nights you can go for an Ayurveda based formula that can provide fast relief without making you feel drowsy.

Choosing safe and natural products over chemical laden syrups is always a better choice, so choose wisely! Besides, incorporating few healthy habits in your daily routine can help prevent an onslaught of coughing. Following healthy habits like regularly washing hands, getting tested for any possible allergy and using disinfectants for household cleaning can go a long way in preventing cough and its related problems.

What is cough?Line

Cough is a natural reflex to protect your lungs from foreign particles that cause irritation in the respiratory tract. The body tries to expel these substances to clear your airways by short and sudden bursts of air from the lungs. There are three levels to a cough reflex:

1) Inhalation or breathing in
2) A forced exhalation with glottis closed
3) An explosive release of air when the glottis is forced open

What causes cough?Line

Coughing to clear the throat is an infrequent action but there are number of reasons that cause you to cough frequently or persistently.

Acute cough can result from a number of reasons. The most common among them being:

1) Pollution
2) Excessive smoking
3) Respiratory tract infections like cold & flu
4) Allergies
5) Inhaling an irritant

Among the conditions that can cause chronic cough, the ones given below remain the most common ones:

1) Damage to vocal chords
2) Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). It is a condition in which acidic stomach contents flow back in to the food pipe thus stimulating a reflex in the trachea and causing a person to cough.
3) Asthma
4) Blood pressure drugs or other medicinal side-effects
5) Chronic bronchitis

Symptoms of coughLine

A cough develops when cells along the air passage get inflamed and trigger a chain of reaction. As a result of which, air in the lungs is forced out under high pressure causing a person to cough. Cough may be dry or it may expel mucus. The mucus consistency can differ from being thin and white to thick and yellow. In some cases mucus maybe streaked with blood. But to know what type of cough you are inflicted with, you need to know its symptoms first.

The symptoms of cough can easily be identified as:

1) Sore throat
2) Hoarseness
3) Wheezing & shortness of breadth
4) Runny or stuffy nose
5) Heartburn or sour taste in the mouth

An occasional cough is normal but if it lingers for weeks and expels sputum or blood and is giving you disturbed sleep then you must see a doctor and take proper medication as it could be a result of some serious medical problem.

Anatomy of coughLine

Infection in the respiratory tract, allergens, pollution, bronchitis, heart failure, and smoking are some of the reasons that irritate the nerves in your airway. When this happens, a message is sent to the ‘cough centre’ of the brain which responds by sending a command to expel it with sudden bursts of air.

What happens when you cough?Line

You cannot live a normal routine life if you are infected with cough. Cough not only becomes a reason for you to feel sick it can even cause irritation to the people around you. Even though cough is a rather harmless reaction of the body that expels out the stuff that does not belong in your lungs and windpipe; still accepting persistent cough as a normal bodily phenomenon would not be advisable.

Coughing not only upsets your normal routine, it even causes you to feel sick and tired through the day. From making you feel dizzy to causing you to vomit blood in extreme cases, the body reacts to different coughs in different ways. But some of the things that usually your body usually experience when you cough persistently are:

- Breathlessness
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Sleep disturbance
- Fever or night sweats
- Loss of energy
- Fatigue
- Headaches

When does cough turn dangerous?Line

If the cough persists and lingers on for more than 2 weeks, it is time to take a trip to the doctor. Persistent cough can be a symptom of a serious underlying medical problem that must not be ignored. If left untreated, severe cough may lead to problems like:

- Tiredness
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Fractured ribs (in cases of severe cough & sudden exhalation of cough)
- Asthma
- Chronic Bronchitis

Relation between cough & immunityLine

A healthy immune system is your best weapon when it comes to preventing diseases. A strong immune system defends the body from contracting harmful diseases caused by bacterial, fungal and viral infections. When cough strikes, it turns off certain signals in the body thus leaving it vulnerable to infections and various other external harmful influences. Lower immunity levels mean a drastic fall in the body’s ability to fight against infections and you feeling tired and week at all times. On an average an adult may get 4-5 cough episodes a year and a child around 8-9 that may lead to skipping work and school quite frequently.

Treatment of cough Line

Dabur Honitus Cough Syrup:

Treatment for any kind of cough depends on its underlying causes. Most cough syrups contain codeine & alcohol, which cause drowsiness and may be addictive. Dabur Honitus is a safe & effective herbal formulation that eradicates helps relieve cough, without any adverse effects!