Medication cough and what is the benefit of it

Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article I will talk about how the side effects of drugs are used by some to their advantage.

In fact, only ACE inhibitors regularly cause coughing. This cough is not always harmful. Sometimes it saves lives.

There is also a cough from any expectorant. But here everything is simple - expectorants do not save anyone's life, so you can refuse them.

There is also a cough from medicines that dilate the bronchi in people with bronchial asthma. But this is not a side effect. This is rather good, because the phlegm clogged in the bronchi simply comes out. Together with sputum and coughing goes away.

ACE inhibitors

About 15% of people who take ACE inhibitors have a cough. This is a dry cough, that is, there should not be a noticeable amount of sputum.

No one knows exactly why a cough appears. The point of ACE inhibitors is to suppress the work of an enzyme that something from something splits off. It is clear that as a result

This cough has characteristic features:

• He usually appears in the first week from the beginning of taking ACE inhibitors. Sometimes this happens only after a few months, sometimes even after half a year.
• With this cough, it often happens sore throat. People say that they have "something scratching" or "throats".
• If you stop taking ACE inhibitors, the cough usually goes away after 1 - 4 days. If you're unlucky, you'll be coughing for a month.
• If you then start taking ACE inhibitors again, then the cough will return. You can't wait it out. They cannot be ill once and for all. If the cough was for one ACE inhibitor, then there will be another ACE inhibitor.

• This case is more often suffered women. And also Chinese. And more often the Chinese are from Hong Kong. Every second there is such a cough. This is some kind of mystery of nature.
• Asthmatics are no more likely to cough from ACE inhibitors than other people.
• Bronchospasm usually does not occur with these drugs.

If you notice a similar cough, then tell your doctor. He will prescribe something that does not cause a cough.

The benefits of this cough

It turned out that such a clinging cough can be helpful.

Chinese scientists, who were tortured with this cough, decided to check if it was useful. Well, that is, the Chinese have so often suffered from cough associated with taking ACE inhibitors that researchers were looking for at least some benefit from this case.

It turned out that there is benefit. This cough reduces the risk of pneumonia. We have already discussed the mechanisms of the appearance of pneumonia. This is pneumonia, which is usually triggered by a piece of snot, flown into the lungs from the nasopharynx. That is, these snot should be slightly choked.

It is clear that any person can choke. But more often it happens with older people. They have a weakened cough reflex and often choke.

Among other things, the elderly often take ACE inhibitors.

And so the Chinese scientists decided to check - if their Chinese elderly people regularly cough from ACE inhibitors, then it will not be useful in terms of preventing pneumonia.

It turned out that for the elderly after a stroke, there is indeed benefit. Their pneumonia developed less frequently. But for this it was necessary to watch out for the weakened old people. The young did not succeed. ACE inhibitors had no effect on their incidence of pneumonia.

So do not try to experiment with medications, but always ask your healthcare professional.