Are You Suffering From Acid Reflux Cough?

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Coughing is a normal physiological reflex against inflammation or irritation in the throat, larynx, bronchial pipes or lungs. There are two different types of cough, dry and congested or chesty, depending on the presence of mucus or phlegm in the respiratory system.

A dry cough is raspy and has no purpose of expelling phlegm because there’s no phlegm or mucus exists in the respiratory system. In most cases dry coughs are best treated with cough suppressant or also known as antitussive. Dry coughs often occur due to asthma, dust or pollution and smoking.

Congested coughing is related to sinus infection, cold or flu and often accompanied by or started with stuffy nose ot sore throat. The presence of excess mucus in the airway or lungs will disturb the respiratory process so coughing is needed to remove the mucus from the respiratory system. Congested or chesty coughing should not be suppressed because it is needed to remove the phlegm.

In congested cough, coughing sometimes fails to remove the phlegm. To help removing this phlegm expectorant agents can be used to break up the phlegm so it is easier to cough the phlegm off the chest.

Acid Reflux Cough

A chronic and nagging cough can be a by-product of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Most people are aware of the relationship between acid reflux and heartburn, a burning pain in the upper chest but they might not realize that it also causes esophagus irritation and can result in chronic coughing.

Some potential signs of acid reflux cough are:

– Chronic cough, cough doesn’t respond to cough medications
- Hoarseness or abnormal changes in the voice due to persistent laryngitis
- Sore throat due to inflammation
- Wheezing sound during breathing due to narrowed airway as a result of bronchial tubes inflammation

Since the culprit of acid reflux cough is the acidic juices from your stomach, standard cough medications may not help much. Lifestyle changes have a better chance to reduce the symptoms instead of blindly shooting at the symptoms with cough suppressant or expectorants.

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