Many of you may have had the experience of coughing from time to time after being cured of a cold, and you have taken a lot of medicine, but the cough never gets better. The cough that persists after a cold can be a problem for many friends.
So, what are the reasons for a cough that doesn’t go away after a cold?
1. Abuse of antibiotics
Many people have misconceptions about coughs, thinking that coughs are definitely bacterial infections, so they take anti-inflammatory drugs and keep increasing or changing the dosage and type of antibiotics, eating one without seeing the cough improve, and then changing to more advanced ones. According to the author, in pharmacies, almost every day you can see many people who come to buy drugs on their own because of constant coughing after a cold, and many of them come back to the pharmacy to buy other cough and phlegm relievers and antibiotics in a week or so because they complain that the drugs they bought last time did not work. According to hospital doctors, many cough patients come to the hospital complaining that they have had the experience of “unauthorized” use of medication and come to the doctor only because they do not get better. In fact, self-medication, especially antibiotics, is not only unhelpful for coughs, but also prone to antibiotic abuse and side effects such as dysbiosis of the internal flora.
2. Thinking that cough is just a “trivial matter”
Cough symptoms after a cold are often characterized by an occasional cough with a tickling throat. This cough does not affect the patient’s work and life too much, so many patients do not pay enough attention to it, thinking that it is just a “trivial matter” and that it will slowly heal without treatment. Some patients even smoke and drink as usual, eat and drink spicy food and do not pay attention to the details of their lives, which eventually leads to continuous irritation of the pharynx, resulting in a cough that does not heal or gets worse.
3. Unclear diagnosis by doctors
When patients go to the doctor, there is usually nothing abnormal in the doctor’s examination of breathing, and most of the routine blood and X-ray chest films are normal. The patient is often diagnosed as “chronic bronchitis”, “bronchitis”, “pharyngitis” and so on. As a result, the treatment plan for patients is still anti-infection, bronchial dilatation, or the use of some Chinese medicine to stop coughing and resolve phlegm, but the effect is often not very obvious. Moreover, there is a risk of misuse of antibiotics.
Is coughing after a cold really a “piece of cake”?
The answer is no. For example, coughing can cause hoarseness, making it difficult to communicate; sudden and violent coughing at work can affect the work of others; sudden and violent coughing when talking to clients can cause embarrassment in business negotiations; coughing at home from time to time can affect the rest of the family; at the same time, coughing at night can lead to lack of sleep and cause irritability, nervousness, anxiety, self-blame, anxiety and other negative emotions. Severe coughing leads to bronchospasm, shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing. Long-term coughing causes chest pain and restricts breathing; some women even suffer from urinary incontinence when they have a severe cough, which is very painful; at the same time, repeated coughing can be complicated by infections, which can develop into chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, emphysema and pulmonary heart disease. Patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease, rheumatic heart, etc. may also suffer from recurrence of heart disease. This shows that coughing can have a lot of effects on both the patient and those around him. Coughing after a cold should never be underestimated!
How can we deal with post-cold cough?
1. Do not use antibiotics indiscriminately
We know that more than 90% of acute respiratory infections such as colds are caused by viruses, not germs. Moreover, after the disappearance of cold symptoms, the viral infection of the respiratory tract is basically cleared, and the cough at this time is mostly related to the damage of respiratory epithelial cells, exposure of neurosynaptic, increased airway reactivity and other factors, therefore, oral antibacterial anti-inflammatory drugs are useless and completely unnecessary.
2.Pay attention to the details of life
1) Pay attention to physical exercise and do more outdoor activities to enhance physical fitness.
2) Eat a light diet, do not eat spicy and sweet food, do not drink and do not smoke, especially pay attention not to stay up late.
3) Pay attention to keeping warm to avoid catching a cold again, and keep a happy mood, do not get angry or sad.
4) For those who have itchy throat, drink more water, speak and sing less loudly, and take oral Chinese medicines such as Banlangen and Da Qing Ye to clear the throat.
5) For those who have phlegm in the throat, take orally Chinese herbs such as Radix Platycodon, Chuanbei, Orange Red and Ziyuan to relieve cough and resolve phlegm.
3, can try some cough and phlegm remedies.
4. If the cold still persists, make sure to go to the hospital and request treatment from a specialist.
It is generally believed that a cough after a cold can be cured by itself if it is a simple cough without other symptoms. However, the premise is that the patient must pay attention to what is mentioned above.