HuffPost: These Subtle Differences Between Coughs Can Reveal a Lot About Your Illness

HuffPost recently interviewed Cedars-Sinai pulmonologist Jiyeon Seo, MD, about how different kinds of coughs can indicate the underlying cause and how to treat them.

Coughing is the body’s way of clearing irritants—such as mucus, dust or germs—out of the lungs. Mucus production, the timing of a cough and accompanying symptoms can give doctors valuable insight into what is going on in the body.

Seo told HuffPost a productive cough—meaning it brings up mucus—might signal a bacterial infection, and a nonproductive, or dry, cough often is caused by a viral infection, such as the flu, asthma, allergies, irritants or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). 

If the cough lasts less than three weeks, she said, it’s called an acute cough and is “usually caused by an acute upper or lower respiratory tract infection, allergies or irritant.”

Seo told HuffPost a subacute cough lasts three to eight weeks and could signal an underlying disease or just be a cough that lingers after a respiratory infection has cleared. A chronic cough lasts more than eight weeks and could indicate asthma, GERD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or a more serious lung disease, including cancer.

She said cough frequency and severity also can depend on the person.

“For example, the influenza virus may trigger a mild, short-lived cough in a healthy young person, but in an older individual with a weakened immune system … it can lead to a severe, potentially life-threatening cough and illness,” she said.

Seo told HuffPost it’s important to see a doctor if a cough comes with chest pain, difficulty breathing, fevers, coughing up blood or unexplained weight loss. From there, physicians can recommend the most effective treatment.

Click here to read the complete article from HuffPost.