1. Inhale Smoke, Exhale Cough
Smokers and children with a parent who smokes often suffer from a condition commonly called smoker's cough. Cigarette smoke damages the protective ciliated cells and increases the amount of mucus produced by the body. This leads to either a dry, hacking cough or a productive cough. If a smoker has a productive cough, treatment is not recommended because that actually helps restore the ciliated cells. Water is a great natural remedy to treat a dry, hacking cough. It moistens your throat and helps clear out the mucus stuck in your chest. Other natural alternatives include breathing in hot steam from a shower and sleeping with a vaporizer in your room.
2. Beat Your Bronchitis Cough
Over the counter medication is the best cough treatment when you have bronchitis. This annoying cough usually follows a cold or a sinus infection and it's usually accompanied by a sore throat and chest congestion. Nonprescription cough medicines work well to suppress the cough, which helps ease the chest pain that sometimes results from excessive coughing. When choosing a cough medicine, determine if you want a suppressant (to stop the cough) or an expectorant (to help you get rid of mucus). Either option works, and there's no proof that one or the other speeds up recovery.
3. Sneezing, Wheezing and Coughing
When seasonal allergies hit, so does the allergy cough. It's a miserable time of year, but you can control your allergy cough by controlling your allergies. Keep your home free of dust and mold and avoid triggers that you know cause your allergies to flare up. Over the counter medications like Claritin also help control medications or you can contact your doctor for prescription relief.
4. A Whopping Number of Whooping Cough Cases
Whooping cough is becoming more common in children and adults alike. Doctors have seen a steady rise in whooping cough cases, mostly in children who are too young to have finished the round of vaccines. Treatment options depend on your age and on the severity of your symptoms. For older children and adults, doctors say bed rest and an antibiotic work together to fight whooping cough. Even though antibiotics don't necessarily cure whooping cough, studies prove patients on antibiotics get well faster. Babies diagnosed with whooping cough may spend time in the hospital because of the risk of serious complications. Over the counter medications, unfortunately, don't soothe coughing caused by whooping cough.
5. Asthma may be the Culprit
If you have a chronic cough and don't find much relief with over the counter medications, you could actually have asthma. This doesn't mean that you have to reach for your inhaler every time you exercise. However, a different kind of medication might be necessary when you come down with a cold or a sinus infection. Asthma medications have a come a long way in recent years. Many patients find that when they treat their asthma, their chronic cough goes away.
