Cough It Up

One of the most annoying of all the symptoms of the common cold is a persistent cough. And recent research has confirmed what most of us already know - it’s not only those who cough who feel irritated. All those who have to listen to the cough feel pretty irritated too.

Not surprisingly, the survey has shown that over 70% of Americans find it irritating when they are part of an audience at a concert or in a movie theatre and someone is constantly coughing.

Probably we feel irritation because the noise of coughing is an interruption to our enjoyment; perhaps we might also be irritated by the fact that a cough is often a very audible sign of illness being spread.

Medically speaking, a cough is the automatic defensive action our body employs to clear and protect our lungs from such things as dust, foreign bodies, smoke, fumes, and viral and bacterial infections.

We cough with such force that the explosion of air from the lungs travels at a speed of approximately 900 kilometres an hour and may propel bacteria and virus particles up to 240 centimetres. That’s real germ-spreading power.

Coughing is an ideal way to transmit infection – principally by droplets of viruses and bacteria being coughed up by one person and inhaled by another. However, colds and flu can literally be caught. We are all taught to politely cover our mouths when we cough, but viruses can survive on the hand for hours; and hand to hand contact is another very effective way of spreading infection.

If you have a cough (and most people will this winter), you can take some comfort from the knowledge that, in most cases, a cough will clear up within ten days.

Meanwhile, there are a number of coping strategies you can put into place to minimise the discomfort: drink plenty of fluid, get plenty of rest and eat a well-balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables to supply natural anti-oxidants – all help strengthen your immune system. As well, depending on the type of cough you have, your pharmacist can recommend a medicine to make life much more bearable for both you and those around you.

If yours is a chesty kind of cough – then you will need to get rid of the mucus or the phlegm with a mixture. On the other hand, if your cough is dry, nagging and non-productive you’ll get benefit from one of the cough suppressants available.

Cough mixtures aren’t to everybody’s taste, a great alternative for dry coughs is a cough suppressant lozenge. They contain a combination of ingredients – not only a cough suppressant but an anti-bacterial and a local anaesthetic to soothe the throat as well.