Cough treatment

Cough is a really annoying symptom. It is some time lasting for a long period of time, and you can not get rid of it. Many patients tell me they have suffered this terrible symptom for a long time. They ask me why  we cough and what the causes of coughs are? Now I will use an easy way to talk about cough in Western Medicine and Chinese Medicine.

Cough In Western Medicine

Coughing is the body's way of removing foreign materials or mucus from our lungs and upper airway passages or of reacting to an irritated airway. Coughs have distinctive traits you can learn to recognize. A cough is just a symptom, not a disease. A productive cough produces phlegm or mucus (sputum). The mucus may have drained down the back of the throat from the nose or sinuses or may have come up from the lungs. A productive cough generally should not be suppressed because it clears mucus from the lungs.

There are many causes of a productive cough, such as: Viral Illnesses, Bronchospasm, Allergies, Asthma, Blockage of the airway by an inhaled object, such as food or pills.

Cough In Traditional Chinese Medicine

Coughing indicates abnormal Qi activity inside the lungs. Tradition Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that the lungs are not only responsible for respiration, but also dominate the qi (vital energy) of the whole body. It inhales pure qi from nature and exhales the impure qi. It also receives nutrient qi from the spleen, combines the nutrient qi with the inhaled qi to form pectoral qi which then enters blood and then is distributed over the body. In a normal situation, the different types of qi flow in a specific and coordinated manner. When the qi flows inside the lungs are interrupted, symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, weakness and even excess sweating will happen.

Patients ask me why they feel tightness in their chest after taking western medicine to stop cough. Actually, cough is one of our body reaction to clean airway. You can imagine you are on your way to Blue Jays game, and you feel really urgent because the game almost begin. However, there is a really terrible traffic jam in front of you. Many police are trying to flow the traffic. The police are the action of cough.

But, something weird happens. Some really powerful people ask these police to leave. The traffic is still clogged, and you are really angry about this because it does not make sense. This is the reason why you take pills to stop cough, but it turns to chest tightness. The really powerful people are the pills. Most of the cough pills are central inhibition, but the stock thing is still there. That is why you can not get rid of cough.  That is why my patients like acupuncture and TCM to treat their cough.They can stop coughing and getting better.