I have been coughing and spitting up thick phlegm for the past few days, and the day before the onset of the disease, I accidentally choked on my meal, and I always felt a grain of rice choked into my airway, and unintentionally coughed more and more violently. Now I realize that the cough was a little heavy. It seems that coughing deserves our attention. After reading this title you may think who doesn’t cough and the answer must be: coughing! Ten points for the correct answer. Because coughing is an innate protective respiratory reflex, it is a physiological reflex caused by an impulse to the medullary cough center after respiratory stimulation (e.g., inflammation, foreign body), which discharges respiratory secretions or foreign bodies and protects the cleanliness and smoothness of the respiratory tract, so coughing is generally a beneficial action and is sometimes seen in healthy humans. In general, a mild and infrequent cough can be relieved naturally without the use of cough suppressants, as long as the sputum or foreign bodies are expelled. However, for those who have a violent dry cough without sputum, or a violent cough with sputum that is too frequent, it not only increases the patient’s pain, affects rest and sleep, increases physical exertion, and even promotes the development of the disease and produces other complications, which can do more harm than good at this time. Therefore, cough suppressants should be applied appropriately to relieve coughing. Everyone can cough as an instinct, but can you do it scientifically and reasonably? Is there a science to coughing? Is there a science to coughing? Is there a skill to coughing? Not only do you not know this, you probably have never heard of it. I have been practicing medicine for many years, and I would like to talk about the dangers of improper coughing from the performance of patients and my own experience. 1. Coughing caused by a foreign body in the respiratory tract; a foreign body in the respiratory tract occurs when a foreign body is caught in the nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx, or tracheobronchus or is inhaled. In children, especially infants and young children when a foreign body enters the respiratory tract, coughing occurs instinctively and naturally. In this case, there are often no obvious complications or damage; in adults, who are anxious to cough up the foreign body, they subconsciously forcefully cough unintentionally increasing the strength, intensity and frequency of coughing. This prolonged, violent and uncontrolled coughing can be extremely harmful. In the lighter cases, congestion, edema, hematoma, bleeding, ulcers, etc. of the respiratory mucosa can occur; in the heavier cases, laryngeal edema can cause breathing difficulties, and in the elderly, it can easily lead to life-threatening cerebrovascular accidents. Therefore, the best choice when a foreign body in the respiratory tract occurs is to go to the hospital in time to be treated by a doctor. Then there is the case of fish sticks in the throat, do not drink vinegar or force swallowing, which is not reliable and wrong approach. You can cough a few times if it does not work, then go to the hospital. I have seen many such patients in the clinic, originally a small fish spike stuck in the pharynx, as a doctor to take the foreign body in the pharynx is mostly simple. But the patient comes to the clinic with a swollen and bruised pharyngeal mucosa that is a mess. This is the serious consequence of a wrong cough. 2. Chronic cough Many patients present with a long-term cough that does not heal repeatedly. Of course their etiology is complex and varied, but a significant proportion of patients are caused by an inappropriate cough. Some are overly sensitive and easily induced coughs, while others cough desperately without restraint. I have seen many such cases clinically, where there is no obvious problem after various hospital tests, but only chronic congestion in the throat. This is often the result of mechanical trauma to the mucous membrane of the throat caused by a persistent and violent cough. Due to the persistent state of coughing, the mucous membrane of the throat has no opportunity to recuperate or even to catch its breath. The inflammation does not subside and the cough does not stop until life is over. Therefore, I have developed a set of throat care methods based on this type of patient with a chronic cough without phlegm: (1) The principle of coughing is to cough lightly or not to cough. A light cough needs little explanation, that is, don’t cough too hard. However, it is very difficult to control the cough when the stimulus is so strong that some people think it is impossible to do so. Here I liken coughing to the bursting of a balloon filled with gas. When you prick a balloon with a needle, the balloon explodes, and sometimes you can see the balloon instantly pulverize. You can imagine that a violent cough can be so lethal to the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract. How to do it without coughing? It is not to prick the balloon with a needle but to let go of the balloon’s inflation port to let the gas out slowly. The first action when the cough reflex is generated is to close the vocal cords and hold your breath. At this point, you should relax your vocal cords and let the gas in your lungs, which has not yet developed a lot of pressure, leak out, so that the cough will not break. (2) Especially in coughs caused by chronic pharyngitis, the discomfort such as itching and foreign body sensation in the throat always makes you want to cough. At this point you can use empty swallowing which is gulping or taking small sips of water, 2 – 3 ml each time. It is actually a repeated swallowing action. This relieves the symptoms and suppresses the cough and has a therapeutic effect. The first is that the repeated mechanical flushing and cleaning of the pharynx reduces local bacteria and viruses and facilitates the recovery of inflammation. The second is that the swallowing motion is like a massage of the pharynx, which promotes local blood circulation and strengthens local immunity. I have tried this method myself, and I have guided many patients to achieve the desired results. Not only for cough but also for acute and chronic pharyngitis and tonsillitis, I have had very good results with the swallowing method. This is my first innovation, and I never want to declare scientific achievements, as long as the patients benefit is my greatest achievement. The above focus is on the treatment of irritating dry cough. In the case of phlegm, it is important to cough up the phlegm without causing harm. It is also dangerous to blindly control the cough. I once saw a college student in medical school who almost died of suffocation due to a sputum clot blocking his airway after three days of being afraid to cough in class. He was eventually relieved quickly with my assistance in removing the thick sputum. The Chinese people today love to do big things, and it is disgraceful to even dream small. However, don’t do small things for the sake of good, and don’t do small things for the sake of evil. I would like to start with these small things, but of course, I can’t do anything big if my dreams are so mediocre. A cough is not enough, but an improper cough is a life-threatening and even life-threatening condition. I hope this little article will give you a little health guidance. If you feel that it is of any use, you can reproduce it and spread it around so that more people can benefit from it. Because of this small common sense Chinese medical journals of all kinds are no space to publish, in fact, they do not even bother to publish. On those fake articles is enough for them to busy the blood spurting. Of course, the page fee is worth a lot of money is also one of the reasons why I dare not submit an article.