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Cough remedies

A cough is a sudden, often repetitive, spasmodic contraction of the thoracic cavity, resulting in violent release of air from the lungs, and usually accompanied by a distinctive sound. Cough is useful when it effectively expels secretions i.e. when it is a productive cough. Dry or unproductive cough has no useful effect. Cough is associated with well over 100 different pulmonary diseases and is one of the most common signs or symptoms of respiratory disease. Unproductive cough may arise from effects such as cancer (primary or secondary) affecting sensory nerves in the larynx or larger bronchi, from asthma and in the early or later stages of coryza. Unproductive cough may also occur due to infiltration of the cough centre in the brain by tumour. Cough may also occur without known cause. Even though cough may be an unwanted complication of a pulmonary disease, it has often been used by physicians as an effective diagnostic tool. Frequent or chronic coughing usually indicates the presence of a disease. The common causes of chronic dry coughing include post-nasal drip, gastroesophageal reflux disease, asthma, post viral cough and certain drugs such as beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and aspirin. Since cough sounds are composed of acoustic information which can be altered by lung disease and since cough has essentially the same acoustical characteristics whether performed voluntarily or involuntarily, analysis of voluntary cough sounds has the potential to become a useful noninvasive tool for screening large populations of workers to evaluate their pulmonary function. The use of cough sound analysis to aid in the identification of lung disease has several distinct advantages since testing can be quickly and easily administered while requiring only a minimum amount of technician or patient training. Coughs can be treated with cough medicines. Dry coughs are treated with cough suppressants (antitussives) that suppress the body's urge to cough, while productive coughs (coughs that produce phlegm) are treated with expectorants that loosen mucus from the respiratory tract. Cough suppressants may act centrally (on the brain, and specifically the vagus nerve) or locally (on the respiratory tract) to suppress the cough reflex.

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