Cough R05

Coughing is a symptom and usually not an independent disease!

Coughing is the involuntary, explosive expulsion of air through the previously opened glottis due to a coughing stimulus via the cough reflex, whereby the expelled column of air reaches a high speed. The functional benefit of coughing is to cleanse the airways of substances that can irritate, constrict or even completely obstruct them.

Classification according to:

• Productive c ough (cough accompanied by expectoration of phlegm)
• Non-productive cough (also irritating cough; dry cough without expectoration of mucus)
• hemoptysis (expectoration of blood)

A further classification differentiates according to the duration of the cough:

• acute cough (different definitions: <8 weeks)
• Chronic cough (>8 weeks)

Acute cough (< 8 weeks duration) can be triggered by inflammation of the airways (sinusitis, laryngotracheitis, tracheobronchitis). It can occur in the course of bronchial asthma, aspiration of foreign material, inhalation of irritants. Deep-seated lung diseases can also cause acute coughing, such as pneumonia, diseases of the pleura and pulmonary embolisms. Acute heart disease is also a possible cause of an acute cough.

Chronic cough (> 8 weeks) is usually caused by smoking or prolonged inhalation of other harmful substances, COPD, lung malignancies, bronchial asthma, VCD, infections or chronic heart disease.

The symptom coughing is one of the most common symptoms leading to a medical consultation.

Coughing is triggered by irritation of mechanoreceptors of the larynx, trachea and the major bronchial passages, and by irritation of irritant receptors located from the trachea to the bronchioles.

The causes are diseases of the respiratory organs, the heart, the stomach, the intake of various medications (e.g. ACE inhibitors) where coughing occurs as an ADR, or - less frequently - psychological disorders. A common cold is the most common cause of an acute cough.

for catarrhal infections, as exptorans see e.g. Cineol, Eucalypti aetheroleum, Pimpinellae radix, Rhizoma Dioscoreae villosae, Glechomae herba, Olea aetherea, Aromatics, Mucilage drugs, Liquiritiae radix, Anisi fructus, Farfarae folium, Foeniculi fructus, Hederae folium, Primulae flos, Grindeliae Herba, Menthae piperitae aetheroleum, Eucalypti folium

see under productive cough and dry cough.

see also Allii cepae bulbi, Coriandri fructus, Herba Asperulae