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Cancer in the lungs, cough know?

4 kinds of cough, or suggest that lung cancer is "knocking at the door"

By Lhasa GermanyPublished about a year ago 5 min read
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Miss Li is an elementary school teacher who has been on the job for five years and has always been dedicated to her duties, and at 10 p.m., she can always be found in the office.

In October last year, Miss Li suddenly developed a cough. At first, she thought it was because she had stayed up late for a long time and was physically tired, plus it happened to be the change of season, which invited a cold, so she did not pay attention to it. However, after taking medicine for more than a month, the cough was still more than just a cough, and in December, Miss Li also had symptoms such as chest tightness and abdominal pain, and her husband was an old smoker, and every time she came home smelling like smoke, Miss Li coughed even harder.

During the winter break, finally able to find time, Miss Li still went to the local hospital to register a number, however, the test results were not satisfactory, and the doctor suspected lung cancer, and let her further examination. The examination suggested that Miss Li was indeed suffering from lung cancer with liver metastasis, which led to severe abdominal pain. Fortunately, after treatment, Miss Li's tumor was controlled and the abdominal pain disappeared.

I. Is a long-term cough always lung cancer?

Coughing is a protective respiratory reflex mechanism of the human body. When exposed to foreign bodies and irritating gases, the respiratory mucosa will make a positive rejection response.

Cough can be divided into three categories according to duration and severity.

Coughs of <3 weeks duration, which is acute.

3 weeks < duration < 8 weeks, classified as subacute cough.

those lasting >8 weeks are chronic coughs, usually induced by chronic respiratory diseases.

A cough that is always bad may involve the whole body in.

1. lungs

Lung diseases are a common cause of chronic cough. For chronic cough caused by long-term exposure to cigarettes and fumes, priority should be given to excluding whether it is caused by a tumor. Many tumor patients have no obvious symptoms in the early stage, and the most typical manifestation is a chronic cough, which is accompanied by coughing up blood as the disease develops and invades the airway mucosal vessels.

2. Airways

Cough variant asthma is a special type of asthma, which can be disguised as "cough", usually a persistent dry cough or little sputum, the condition is recurrent, but the abnormalities cannot be detected by blood sampling, chest X-ray, etc., and has a high probability of developing into typical asthma.

3. Stomach and esophagus

Stomach disorders can also cause a chronic cough. When stomach acid and stomach contents reflux into the esophagus, known as gastroesophageal reflux disease, it can irritate the throat and the patient coughs more than once. Episodes of the disease are often characterized by an irritating dry cough, and patients also suffer from acid reflux and heartburn.

4. Heart

When heart disease causes left ventricular failure, it can lead to pulmonary stasis, which can also cause coughing. Some patients do not even have a history of heart disease and directly use cough as the first symptom of heart failure. Patients tend to have a dry cough, sometimes with blood in the sputum, which is aggravated by physical activity or lying down at night.

5. Nose

Nasal diseases can also cause prolonged coughing. Upper airway cough syndrome is caused by inflammatory nasal disease, where secretions can back up into the postnasal and pharyngeal regions, thus causing coughing. The disease occurs mostly in children and is characterized by itching in the throat and repeated coughing, accompanied by sneezing and nasal congestion, and itching.

B. Cough with these characteristics, beware of lung cancer

Cough accompanies lung cancer patients almost throughout the whole process. More than 50% of patients have cough symptoms at the time of diagnosis, and about 25% of patients will have chronic dry cough in the postoperative table of lung cancer.

However, it does not mean that chronic cough is necessarily caused by lung cancer. A cough caused by tumors has its characteristics, specifically including the following four aspects.

1、Can't find the cause by themselves

Inexplicable and sudden cough, not related to cold, pharyngitis, pneumonia, etc.

2、It is irritating

The cough of lung cancer is usually an irritating dry cough. Patients often have the feeling of stuck sputum and always cannot cough up cleanly, and some patients may cough up white foamy sputum, and if combined with the feeling, the stained liquid is yellow pus. With the development of the disease, the sputum can have blood in it.

3、It is not good all the time

The cough lasts for more than 2 weeks without getting better, and the previous medication cannot do anything.

4、Cough that was not originally like this

A change like a cough, such as a long-term smoker, who used to have an intermittent cough, but now has an uninterrupted, strong dry cough.

When the above symptoms appear, you should be alert and go for lung cancer discharge in time to avoid delaying the disease.

Third, an important reminder: don't take medicine indiscriminately for cough, it may become an addiction

Many people will find some cough medicine to deal with cough. In this regard, Li Jing, a pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy department of Zhenjiang Third People's Hospital, does not recommend that people take cough medicine at random. She said that the causes of cough are complex and diverse, and some cough medicines not only fail to relieve the condition, but also have addictive properties.

1. Powerful lozenges

Powerful loquat is an over-the-counter Chinese medicine that contains poppy shells. The drug components of poppy shells can be decomposed into the human body after entering the addictive ingredients such as poppy bases, causing the brain to produce pleasure.

In 2017, the Second People's Hospital of Guangdong Province saw the first domestic case of a coughing patient who was addicted to Power Loquat. Many coughs and diarrhea-relief Chinese patent medicines contain poppy shells, such as Antelope Cough Syrup, Ma Baicalin Cough Syrup, and Ginseng Pao Lung Pill.

2, codeine

Codeine itself has a cough suppressant effect and can inhibit the cough center, but it belongs to the narcotic supplies and also has addictive properties. As the time of taking it increases, patients will experience withdrawal symptoms, general discomfort, dizziness, runny nose, and even hallucinations and other mental symptoms.

In 2018, the NIDA banned the use of codeine-containing drugs for adolescents under the age of 18.

Coughs can be caused by gas irritation or a cold virus, and these transient coughs usually recover in a short period. However, if all indicators are normal and the cough suddenly appears inexplicably and does not improve for a long time, you should be alert to the possibility of other diseases and promptly visit the relevant specialist.

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Lhasa Germany

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