Mucus will pick up bacterial, viral, or allergen particles in your airways so that you can pretty easily cough them out. Basically, your immune system responds to some sort of issue and is deploying a mechanism to remove it. Phlegm is a byproduct of discomfort in the sinuses and the lungs. But from a biological standpoint, doing whatever you can to get that mucus out of your body is essential to get over your sickness or allergies faster. If you're kept awake by coughing when you lie flat, make a nest of pillows so you're propped up.īeing cold for long periods may increase the chance of illnesses like chest infections - so don't sleep with the window open! However, there's no reason to avoid going out entirely if you have a cold, as long as you're well wrapped up.We don’t really know what’s worse: coughing up a ton of phlegm or coughing up none at all. At night when you're lying down, it trickles on to your soft palate and stimulates your cough reflex. You may also find that your cough gets worse at night - this is because when you're upright during the day, the mucus from your nose trickles down the back of your throat and you swallow it. You'll get best results from cough mixtures designed for the kind of cough you have. For instance, with a chesty cough you bring up yellow or green phlegm or mucus, while a dry, tickly cough usually doesn't come with any sputum. Your pharmacist is the expert here - they can advise you on all sorts of remedies, depending on what combination of symptoms you have.
In fact, we can't 'cure' them, but there are a lot of things that you can do to help relieve the symptoms. They're almost all caused by viruses, so antibiotics don't do any good at all. It's not uncommon to be infected with more than one virus at the same time, so symptoms may overlap and last longer from start to finish. Most coughs that accompany a cold will settle in one to two weeks.
However, be aware that the proviso is that the symptoms should be unexplained - so having a cough for a week or two accompanied by other symptoms of infection with a virus (runny nose, fever, etc) doesn't raise the same alarm bells. If you're over 40 and have ever smoked, just one of these symptoms should trigger a referral for chest X-ray. They recommend you should have a chest X-ray within two weeks if you're over 40 and have two symptoms out of cough, shortness of breath, tiredness, chest pain, weight loss or loss of appetite. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has guidelines on when cancer should be suspected. However, always see a doctor if your cough lasts for more than three weeks, or is accompanied by coughing up of blood or rusty-coloured sputum wheeziness or difficulty in breathing or sharp stabbing chest pain when you breathe (rather than when you cough). It rarely is - other causes are much more likely. At least once a week, I have a patient in who’s worried their cough is due to cancer. Public Health England's 2016 campaign 'Be clear on cancer' aimed to raise awareness of the risks of lung cancer and its link with persistent cough.
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