Cough: Types, Treatment, and Prevention

If you’ve done everything you could to avoid getting a cold or flu this year, but you’ve still come down with a bad cough - have you stopped to think about what kind of cough you’ve come down with? There are two types of coughs - a wet chesty cough and a dry cough.

Which one do you have?

To treat your cough with the correct cough relief medication, it’s important to understand exactly what kind of cough you have. If you don’t use the correct cough treatment, it won’t relieve your symptoms.

So, let's make sure that we understand the different types of coughs, as well as treatments that can help relieve your cough.

TYPES OF COUGHS

Chesty Cough

A chesty cough might occur during a cold or flu that causes an infection in the lungs and can often make it difficult to sleep or be active during the day. The infection can lead to an increase in mucus production.

Chesty cough symptoms might include feeling heavy discomfort in the chest and lung area, with congestion that may lead you to have a cough that feels ‘wet’ - this could leave you coughing up mucus or phlegm. This is why a chesty cough is also known as a wet or productive cough because you are expelling harmful mucus, which is good. 

Dry Cough

A dry cough, in contrast, is a cough where no mucus or phlegm is produced. These coughs are also known as non-productive coughs. A dry cough is often irritating and is associated with a tickly throat.

TREATMENTS

Chesty Cough

One of the best chesty cough medicines is Robitussin Chesty Cough Medicine which comes in liquid syrup. It is an expectorant, which is simply something that can help break up the mucus so that your body can more easily expel it.

Robitussin Chesty Cough Sugar-Free Syrup is the best chesty cough medicine for severe wet coughs because it loosens mucus from the chest, throat, and nose, reducing the cough and making breathing easier.

Dry Cough

A dry cough can be helped with medicines known as antitussives, which can help in suppressing the cough. While there are several dry cough remedies, we recommend Robitussin Dry Cough Syrup, a dry cough syrup that treats and relieves dry coughs. It works by relieving dry persistent coughs by controlling the cough reflex and soothes the throat.

How to Prevent a Cough

 While infrequent coughing is necessary to clear the airways, prevention of cough can be accomplished by some lifestyle changes if it’s not related to a cold or flu.

• Quit smoking
• Eat a diet high in fruits, fibre, and flavonoids to lessen chronic respiratory symptoms.
• Avoid coming into (or limit interaction) contact with anyone with a contagious illness, such as bronchitis, a cold, the flu, and Covid-19. Wear a mask and social distance if you aren’t able to fully avoid contact.
• Wash your hands frequently and don’t share utensils, towels, or pillows.
• If you have existing medical conditions that increase your chances of developing a cough, such as asthma, consult your doctor about different management strategies. Once the condition is managed, you may find that your cough disappears, or becomes much less frequent.

 If you have any questions about which medication to take for your cough, visit Online4 Pharmacy to see all the medications available to help you get healthy and strong.