Your mother always told you to cover your mouth when you cough. It's a good idea, even if you don't think that you have an infection, such as a cold. For one thing, covering your mouth when coughing will help develop the habit to do so; when a cold (virus) or other infection is present, one need not "think" about it - it will occur automatically. And, you can pass that on to your children. It makes sense, it is polite, and it helps others.
What is a cough? Well a cough can be considered a "watchdog of the lungs". The mouth offers an excellent route for germs (bacteria, viruses, etc.) to enter the body; the lungs happen to be a good place for the germs to grow - and spread through the blood stream to yet other places in the body. The body has its own defenses, and one of those is the cough. The cough is provoked by either a mechanical or chemical stimulation of the airways that lead into the lungs. The airways are lined with small hair-like projections, called cilia, which help "catch" debris that try to enter the airway. Once the cilia (or hair-like projections) entrap a particle, the cilia starts to move the particle up into the throat where a stimulation causes a reflex, which develops into a cough. But, that is only one mechanism which is responsible for a cough - there are others. Read on.
Have you ever been in the doctor's office and have one of those instruments put into your ear so the doctor can look into your ear canal? What happened? Did you cough? Chances are that either you did or you felt that you had to. Such an occurrence is called a "cough reflex" and it is normal. If you should ever become constipated, you might also develop a cough. Why? Well, it just so happens that if the diaphragm is irritated - that elastic "belt" that goes up and down when you breathe - a cough could occur. Constipation, especially if severe, can lead to pressure placed upon the lower end of the diaphragm (by pressure within the large bowel, which runs transversely across the top part of the abdomen) and hence it can irritate the diaphragm. A cough occurs, but you think that you don't have a cold. The same can be true if you should have a hiatal hernia (a situation in which the top portion of the stomach extends up into the chest from below the diaphragm); a cough can occur. And, then a cough can also occur with simple "bronchiospasm" caused by bronchitis or an "upper respiratory infection", such as a simple virus (cold). The cough, then, could be the result of an infection or a stimulus from another part of the body. Whatever the cause, the results are the same. If coughing only at night, there could be a sinus infection which results in drainage into the back of the throat - leading to a cough. The sinuses, by the way, drain better if one is lying down - simply due to anatomy - the way in which the sinuses lie in relationship to the throat.
Some medicines cause a cough. A typical and very common type of medicine which could cause a cough is one type of anti-hypertensive medicine (high blood pressure). Some of the most common prescribed medicines, in fact, have a long list of side effects, one of them being a cough.
So, what do we do about a cough and how can we treat it? The cough is controlled by the mid brain. There is a "central cough zone" in the base of the brain, called the "cough center". When stimulated, for whatever reason, a cough occurs. We can "raise" that "reflex" with some very common medicines, such as codeine, alcohol (which is why the "Nighttime Cough Medicines" work so well - they contain about fifteen percent alcohol), amongst others. We ought to be careful about treating a cough; sometimes we "want to" bring that "junk" up out of our airways; and other times, well, the cough seems to do nothing but keep us up all night long, getting us up in the mornings with a sore throat. Here's the general rule (and you can use many of the over-the-counter remedies as examples): if the cough is "non-productive", meaning that there is nothing coming up with the cough, then suppress it. You will want to take a cough suppressant, such as codeine, or the Nighttime Cough Medicine. If the cough is "wet" and "productive" such as with bronchitis or a real bad cold, then we ought to take a "cough expectorant. These medications are available over-the-counter and the labels are very easily applicable to the symptoms. Follow the "general" rule; and if the cough is not clearing within three or four days, see your doctor. For the cough from other reasons other than an infection, we find that suppressing it serves the best remedy.
For net surfers, there are 21,823 sites available which link to the keyword cough. Here are three of them. You can search "cold and cough" or "cough remedies".
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