Dry Cough Causes

Dry cough causes – a variety of medical conditions

As stated in the subtitle, there are quite a few medical conditions associated with dry cough. Although coughing is a natural way of the body to clear the respiratory system from any irritants, there might be certain medical conditions present which of which dry cough is a symptom and could be potentially dangerous to your health.

Some common dry cough causes related to other medical conditions are:

Asthma – Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the respiratory system with a number of symptoms including dry cough. Asthma itself comes in many different forms along with specific causes. These causes are related to genetic and environmental factors. Remarkably, there has been a rise in documented cases during the past few decades.

Environment – The environment we live in plays a major role in our wellbeing and is one of the major dry cough causes. These days certain areas of the environment in which we live in, contain a high level of atmospheric pollutants. Recent studies highlighted living spaces near busy urban roads as area’s with a high concentration of air borne pollutants which can cause a multitude of respiratory related irritations. Sudden changes in weather can also trigger dry cough. Cold and dry air can be the cause of dry cough in many cases and this is not always weather related if we keep in mind we often tend to find ourselves in air conditioned spaces.

Laryngitis – Irritation to the vocal cords. Most commonly this is marked by a hoarse voice or even a complete loss of the voice. Many of us have experienced this ourselves and thus it’s not difficult to imagine this to be a cause of dry cough.

Medications – Side effects of certain medications can cause dry cough. The medicines that can have coughing as a side effect include the ones that are used in the treatment of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases. Since this is a side effect of the use of specific medication, there is no treatment available other than stop taking these medicines. However, NEVER stop your medication without consulting your doctor. There is completely no need to stop taking your medicines because of the dry cough as a side effect since there is no danger involved. You could very well be thinking that you’ve caught a cold or will be coming down with the flu because of your coughing and try to treat it with common remedies only to discover that nothing helps.

Tracheitis – Tracheitis is the inflammation of the windpipe and can be caused by a bacterial infection. In most mild cases, tracheitis is successfully treated with antibiotics. However, severe cases of tracheitis requires more thorough treatments.

Smoking – smoking is about the worst thing a person can do to his own lungs. Smokers cough can be a form of dry cough but most commonly it’s a wet type of cough. Smoking destroys the cilia in the respiratory system. The cilia can be seen as hairs which clear the respiratory system from a multitude of harmful substances. As these are damaged or destroyed, the body tries to expel these substances by coughing. The only treatment possible is to quit smoking and cleanse your lungs from all the toxic substances that have been accumulating while smoking. Keep in mind that when you are smoking, your smoke also poses a health risk to any bystanders.

These are just a few of the most common dry cough causes and as you understand, coughing is often a symptom of an underlying medical condition which in turn has it’s own causes. In cases that underlying conditions can be ruled out, a dry cough can be treated by a variety of natural cough remedies and home remedies.