A cough is one of the most common symptoms of which patient goes to a doctor. There is not a single person in this universe who didn’t cough in his/her lifetime. In most of the cases, cough is self-limiting and doesn’t cause much trouble. But it might be the only manifestation of some serious underlying illness in our body; for example lung cancer. A cough is not a disease itself, rather it just tells us that something going in our body which is not right.

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What is a cough?

In a simple way, cough is a short explosive expulsion of air. It is nothing but a protective mechanism which is set in our body by the Almighty. When some unwanted substances/objects come in contact with the respiratory tract or try to enter into lungs, our body’s first response will be to expel out that intruders. This innate protective mechanism is called cough.

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Why do we cough?

Though a cough is a respiratory system (lungs) phenomenon other systemic disease might manifest as a cough along with other symptoms. A short list of common cause of a cough:

• Any type of common infection in the respiratory tract (either upper part or lower). Maybe due to common bacteria or virus
• Due to inhaled irritant like fume, dust or smoke or due to foreign body
• Some drugs
• Lung cancers
• Heart failure (main left-sided heart failure)
• Gastro-esophageal reflux disease and hiatus hernia
• Psychogenic cough

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