Very dry frequent cough: what to do and how to treat?

Dry cough, which is classified as unproductive, is mainly one of the symptoms of respiratory diseases, which today are in first place in terms of prevalence. Moreover, this problem is relevant for people of any age category. Every year, both adults and small patients turn to doctors in connection with pathologies of the bronchopulmonary system. Moreover, such patients are becoming more and more due to adverse environmental conditions, hereditary burden, as well as many domestic and occupational risk factors.

Based on the available data, dry cough is a constant symptom in 11-18% of the population of our planet. But, as a rule, he is not regarded by the patient as dangerous. However, the cough reflex significantly weakens the body. However, it can cause complications in the form of pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax.

Symptom definition

Cough is a complex protective mechanism that the body needs to cleanse the respiratory tract of foreign and dangerous objects. This reflex expels a pathogenic agent that causes mucosal damage, along with sputum. When coughing, the muscles of the respiratory system create an effort that accelerates the air outlet of their bronchi, and the epithelium of this organ with its cilia pushes sputum out of the body.

However, sometimes the cough is dry. With this process, sputum is absent. In this case, the mucus is either simply not present, or it is produced in small volumes. This causes a person to dry often cough. If this condition lasts up to 3 weeks, then it is considered acute. From three weeks to three months - protracted. If a dry frequent cough does not go beyond this period, then it is a sign of a chronic process. At the same time, additional symptoms occur in the form of hoarseness in the voice, shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, and weakness.

Varieties

Everyone should pay attention to the occurrence of frequent and dry coughs. After all, if you do not make efforts to get rid of its acute type, the problem will become lingering and will become chronic.

What form can a frequent and dry cough take in an adult and a child?

1. Chronic Sometimes such a cough occurs due to bronchial asthma, excess weight, existing chronic diseases. Heavy smokers also suffer from this form of unpleasant symptom.
2. Barking. Such a cough is evidence that pathogens have attacked the respiratory system or damage to the vocal cords has occurred. As a result of this, a person develops hoarseness and hoarseness.
3. Bursting and continuous. This form of an unpleasant phenomenon indicates the occurrence of whooping cough or asthma. Frequent dry cough in a child, which occurs at night, sometimes becomes a consequence of the vaccine DTP.
4. Long with a dull tone. With this form of frequent dry cough in a child or an adult, pneumonia can be suspected.
5. Day or night. Such forms of cough are most often manifested due to the occurrence of pathologies of the circulatory system. It can be pericarditis, pulmonary embolism, heart disease, or heart failure. Sometimes night or day cough occurs in connection with neurological diseases.

Causes of Dry Cough

What causes this unpleasant phenomenon? Its causes may include:

1. Whooping cough. For this pathology, frequent coughing tremors are accompanied by a deep breath, during which a whistling sound is heard.
2. Pharyngitis. With this pathology, not too intrusive short coughs are observed. In this case, the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx dries up or the mucus accumulates directly at the entrance to the larynx.
3. Tuberculosis. This pathology causes a cough, in which you can hear low tones, which tend to gradually increase.
4. Tracheitis and laryngitis. With such pathologies, a barking cough appears. Its occurrence is promoted by inflammatory processes covering the vocal cords. If the patient is observed with barking dry cough frequent breathing with difficulties and bubbling sounds, then this is a sign of the appearance of croup.
5. Bronchial asthma or obstructive bronchitis. In this case, a dry and frequent cough is intrusive and occurs closer to the morning.
6. Whooping cough. Cough with this disease is intrusive.
7. Mental disorders. Sometimes while eating or when talking in a dry cough, metallic notes are heard. Such a condition can be the result of a mental disorder. However, such a pathology can be diagnosed only after a thorough examination.
8. Sinusitis, rhinitis or sinusitis. The development of such diseases is accompanied by the accumulation of sputum in the respiratory tract. If it enters the lungs and an involuntary cough occurs.
9. Heartburn. Often a dry, frequent cough without fever appears in an adult. And the reason for this phenomenon is the abuse of various hot sauces and spices.
10. Allergy. A very frequent dry cough indicates that there is a certain irritant that adversely affects the respiratory system. It can be washing powder and house dust, pollen of plants or household chemicals. Often in such patients coughing attacks occur. Their amplification falls on the night hours.

Among the factors that provoke a very dry and at the same time frequent cough, there are also:

• emotional experiences and stressful situations;
• smoking, irritating the bronchi;
• foreign bodies entering the mucosa;
• adverse reactions that occur when taking medications;
• heart failure;
• oncology;
• thyroid pathology;
• gastrointestinal problems caused by the formation of a fistula in the esophagus or trachea.

Diagnostics

If you have a frequent dry cough, what should I do to get rid of the problem? First of all, it is necessary to eliminate its cause. And for this you need to see a doctor. He will examine the patient’s complaints and examine him. To make an accurate diagnosis, it will be necessary to donate blood and sputum (if the latter is available) to conduct the necessary research.

For certain causes of dry cough, their detection is possible with the passage of radiography. This method allows you to detect the presence of darkening of the pulmonary field or changes in the pulmonary pattern, as well as the development of tumors in the chest area.

Sometimes, doctors use spirometry and spirography to identify the causes that provoked a dry cough. Carrying out such studies allows you to identify diseases of the bronchopulmonary system at the earliest stages of their development.

The most effective examination method, which is used in the case of dry cough, is bodyoletismography. In this case, various parameters are set not only for the lungs, but also for the whole body. Based on the data obtained, the doctor draws conclusions about the patient’s health level and the presence of hidden pathologies. Bodyoletismography is a procedure completely painless, harmless to the body and does not require any preliminary preparation. In this regard, you can do it if necessary quite often.

Before prescribing a course of treatment for dry and frequent cough, tussography can be performed in specialized clinics. This is a modern method, according to the results of which experts judge the intensity and frequency of coughing, as well as its distribution in the time parameter. Such an examination allows you to establish the exact cause of the cough. Based on this, its correct treatment will be prescribed.

If a frequent dry cough is lingering, then the doctor sometimes sends his patient for bronchoscopy. In such a study, a special probe is used, equipped with a miniature-sized video camera. The bronchoscope is inserted into the lungs and transmits the resulting image to the monitor.

There is also a method of thoracoscopy. The study of the causes of dry cough in this case is performed using a special device. A thoracoscope (the so-called similar device) is inserted into the lungs through a puncture in the chest wall. A similar technique can detect tuberculosis, pleurisy, lung cancer and other diseases.

Drug therapy

How to treat frequent dry cough? To resolve such symptoms in a child or in an adult, resorption of candies will help. Moreover, it is not necessary that they be fortified or medicinal. In this case, it is important to increase the activity of the salivary glands. This will facilitate frequent swallowing. Saliva begins to moisturize the mucous membranes, removing their irritation. At the same time, the swallowing reflex helps relieve seizures. To completely eliminate the cough, it is very important to switch from dry to productive. After withdrawal of sputum, an unpleasant symptom will no longer bother a person.

If a frequent dry cough in a child does not stop, it is recommended to start using mucolytic and expectorant drugs. Such drugs will reduce the viscosity of sputum, which will make it possible to start the process of its excretion.

Antispasmodics

In the treatment of frequent dry cough in children and adults, sometimes there is a need to eliminate its attacks. For this, drugs are used, the effect of which depresses the cough center. Antispasmodics will help in this case. Such funds relieve spasm in the bronchi and help eliminate cough. Among them are “Theofedrine” and “Atropine”. Their intake helps to relax the muscles of the bronchi and ventilation. Using these tools, you can eliminate an attack in chronic obstruction of the lungs and bronchitis.

Antitussive drugs

Sometimes bouts of an unpleasant symptom cause significant harm to the patient's body. This happens with bronchitis, dry pleurisy, whooping cough and other diseases. In this situation, how to treat a frequent dry cough? Even before the moment when sputum formation occurs, it is most advisable to begin to suppress this unpleasant reflex. Such a measure will not allow to finally weaken the patient's body.

In this case, drugs that are not addictive are used. They have a local effect on nerve receptors, while providing a sedative and analgesic effect. Moreover, such drugs do not belong to the group of narcotic drugs.

Such drugs are used only at the very beginning of the disease, before the appearance of sputum and, as a rule, before bedtime. Most often, to eliminate such a problem, Broncholitin syrup is used. It contributes to the combined effect, providing antiseptic, mucolytic and antitussive effects. But it should be borne in mind that with the formation of sputum, taking cough suppressants should be discontinued.

Mucolytics

If an adult or a child has a frequent dry cough, what should I do if there are signs of sputum stagnation? In this case, the patient will need to give funds that would dilute it and contribute to the removal of the body - expectorant and mucolytic. Such drugs combine both of these effects with a mild anti-inflammatory. The use of mucolytics is justified in the presence of wheezing in the tops of the lungs and bronchi, as well as with hard breathing. As for the intensity of coughing, such drugs cannot reduce it. However, their intake releases the body from the accumulated mucus in it, making breathing easier.

Means with this effect can be purchased at the pharmacy. The most effective and affordable of them are Ambrobene, Amroxol, Bromhexine and their analogues.

Good help in eliminating dry cough is provided by syrups created on the basis of plantain. These are Doctor Tyss and Herbion.

Antibiotics

Preparations of this group are used to eliminate infections while confirming the bacterial nature of the pathology. That is, it is considered appropriate to prescribe antibiotics only in the most severe cases. If the ailment is mild, then a similar course of therapy can be harmful to the patient. After all, the action of antibiotics is aimed at suppressing natural immunity, which, among other things, contributes to the development of allergies.

Sedatives

Frequent dry cough, provoked by stress, can be eliminated only after treatment of a nervous disease. In such cases, a doctor's consultation is required. Without his appointment, taking sedatives is dangerous.

Antihistamines

If a dry cough is allergic in nature, then getting rid of an unpleasant symptom should begin immediately. The fact is that after some time, coughing attacks can take a more complicated and protracted form.

In case of an allergy, doctors usually prescribe medications such as Suprastin, Zirtek, and Zodak.

Radical treatment

Sometimes, the administration of drugs prescribed by the doctor is not able to alleviate the debilitating bouts of frequent dry cough. And this fact significantly affects the quality of life of a child or adult. In such cases, the treatment is carried out with the appointment of a course of drugs, which include ethylmorphine, codeine and other substances that contribute to the inhibition of the cough center of the brain. However, it should be borne in mind that such drugs have some side effects. They affect various brain functions and are addictive. That is why their reception is carried out only in the most extreme cases, and even then, as a rule, only in a hospital. This happens, for example, in oncology.

Inhalation

If a frequent and dry cough is observed without a temperature in a child or in an adult, then drugs administered into the respiratory tract in the form of steam will help to provide the fastest and most effective help. Carrying out inhalations allows you to moisten the mucous membrane of the lungs and bronchi and "deliver" the medicine to the site of infection. When carrying out such procedures in the body, the process of formation and elimination of sputum is activated.

Inhalations are performed using nebulizers. In the absence of such devices, it is enough to take any container in which you want to place a hot treatment solution. The patient in this case should breathe steam, covering his head with a dense cloth.

For inhalation use:

• pharmacy medicines - “Lazolvan”, “Berodual”, “Ambrobene”;
• mineral water, soda or saline, which soften and moisturize the dry mucosa;
• herbal decoctions of sage, eucalyptus, linden, mint, chamomile, cedar or fir.

Folk remedies

You can also save a person from dry cough when applying recipes for alternative medicine.

Let's consider some of them:

1. Gargling. For this procedure, various solutions are used. The greatest effect from them can be obtained if the cause of the cough is inflammation of the larynx. Rinsing will soften the mucosa, moisturize it and relieve inflammation. Most suitable for these purposes is a solution prepared from soda and salt, taken in equal amounts with the addition of a few drops of iodine. Chamomile infusion also has a fairly good effect.
2. Drinking warm milk. This heated product will soothe and soften the throat. When a small amount of butter or cocoa butter, or cream, as well as one teaspoon of honey is added to it, milk will produce a softening and enveloping effect, which can persist for a long period of time.
3. Body warming up. If there is no suspicion of complications from infections and at normal or slightly elevated temperature in a patient, dry coughing will help rubbing, massage and compresses. They are most effective for congestive processes in the lungs and bronchitis. The simplest recipe for a compress is to make tortillas from flour and honey with the addition of corn oil. Such a mixture is applied to the patient’s chest, covered with parchment paper or film, insulated with woolen cloth and fixed with a bandage.