Cough Health Video

Video Transcript

SUSAN MCGLADERRY, BM, BCH, MRCP: Hello. My name is Dr. Sue McGladerry. I'm the medical director from the FirstMed Centers in Budapest, Hungary and I'm going to talk to you briefly about the problem of cough. Coughing in fact is a protective reflex that keeps your throat and airways clear; although annoying when it's persistent, coughing does help your body to heal or protect itself. It helps us to clear mucus and foreign material from the airways and cough can also be a symptom of a disease or due to a foreign body stuck in the airway. Coughing spreads cold and other infections from one person to another. There are many causes of cough that give rise to acute or chronic problems. Acute coughs begin suddenly and usually last for not more than two or three weeks, and are associated with things like the flu or cold, but they may sometimes be due to a more serious illness such as pneumonia or to congestive heart failure. Chronic coughs typically last longer than two or three weeks, and in this case the causes are a bit different. It includes things like asthma, allergies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gastroesophageal reflux, smoking. Certain medications can result in cough. Chronic cough is also an important symptom of lung cancer which is primarily a disease of smokers. It's very important to be sure to investigate a smoker's cough. It's dangerous to assume that every cough in a smoker is just habitual cough because of smoking. What treatments are there for cough? Obviously, treatment of the cause, but in addition, relief can come from something as simple as water; you can drink it or inhale it in the form of steam. There are also medicines that can help specifically to stop you coughing, these are known as antitussives. Other kinds of medication simply help you to cough more easily and these are known as pro-tussives. Some medications you can find easily without prescription in the pharmacy, other medicines need to be prescribed by your doctor. It's important to remember taking cough medicines for a long time more than three weeks can be a risky thing because you may be masking a more serious problem so it's important to check with your doctor that there is no more serious underlying cause such as an asthma problem or cardiac problem. In children, it's recommended to avoid those kinds of medications and instead that just use simple home remedies frequent drinks, milk with honey for children over one year of age, and most importantly for tobacco smokers, the most effective way to stop coughing is to stop smoking.